Poso refugees afraid to go home

Poso refugees afraid to go home

PALU: A number of refugees from strife-torn Poso in Central Sulawesi, temporarily accommodated in Napu near Donggala, are reluctant to go home despite the improving security conditions.

"Besides being burdened with a bitter feeling of trauma, our reluctance to go home is caused by the fact that our houses have already been burnt down by rioters," Neli, 54, one of the refugees, said on Thursday.

Neli, a plantation worker, admitted that she was homesick, but asked what she would do in her village as the small house she had built with her husband Ruben, 55, had been destroyed early this month.

But if the government helped rebuild the damaged houses, Neli said that she and dozens of others would return home to start a new life.

She explained that it would be impossible for her and her family to rebuild their house as all their wealth, including a 1.5-hectare cacao plantation, had been destroyed. -- Antara