Notes from a general's wife

Catatan Dari Sinai: Sebuah Album Kenangan

Dewi A. Rais Abin

Published by Penerbit Djambatan, 2nd edition, 2000

Hardcover, xvi + 132pp

JAKARTA (JP): In the late 1970s Dewi A. Rais Abin lived and traveled in the Middle East. This enlightening experience was possible because she was married to Indonesian Lt. Gen. Rais Abin, Commander of the UN Emergency Force (UNEF) in the Middle East from 1975 to 1979. On her journeys and pilgrimages from their residence in Ismailia, Egypt, Dewi, a veteran journalist, kept a dairy of her experiences and her impressions.

These writings have been published in a book, entitled Catatan Dari Sinai (Some Notes from Sinai) by Djembatan. The book does not speak about the general's mission but contains only notes from Dewi's point of view. Dewi's early stories were printed by several local magazines and by Kompas daily.

Gen. Rais was the commander of the Middle East peace-keeping force comprising battalions from Indonesia, Canada, Finland, Ghana, Sweden, Poland and Australia. The force was established to supervise the disengagement of Egyptian and Israeli troops following the conclusion of the peace agreement in the wake of the October 1973 war.

Dewi said her husband's assignment afforded her a great personal opportunity because she had a chance to pray in the three holiest Islamic mosques: Al Aqsa in Jerusalem, the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet Mosque in Medina.

Her circumstance also afforded her the freedom to travel between Egypt and Israel even though Indonesia has no diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

On these occasions, the writer visited Mount Sinai, where Jews, Christians and Muslims believe Moses received the Ten Commandments from God and to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and the Dead Sea.

-- Thayeb I. Sabil