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