Poso refugees victims of a war they do not want

Poso refugees victims of a war they do not want

Badri Djawara
The Jakarta Post
Palu

Thirty-five-year-old Juma Petaa, a Poso Christian taking refuge
in Palu, looked hopeless after listening to a radio report about
his village, Sanginora and four other villages in Poso being
bulldozed flat by extremist Muslim paramilitaries one night early
this month.

His hopes of returning home have been fading fast as all the
residents of the five Christian villages have fled to Tentena
town, a Christian stronghold, or to mountainous areas on their
way to reach North Sulawesi.

Petaa wants to take his family back to Sanginora to resume
their life but they were frightened that they would be killed by
Muslims seeking violence, on their way home.

"We can no longer endure the prolonged conflict and the poor
quality of life we have in exile. Staying under such a condition
has made my family frustrated," he told The Jakarta Post
recently.

Petaa explained he had never imagined that the Poso conflict
that erupted at the end of 1998, would last this long and claim
thousands of lives.

He condemned Poso's local elite for having waged the bloody
war among their supporters. He also blasted security authorities
for having failed to take tighter measures against those who have
come from outside to wage war on the villagers. The Java-based
Muslim militant group Laskar Jihad, has apparently sparked the
latest phase with perhaps thousands of well-armed (including
rocket launchers, bulldozers and AK-47s), well-funded extremists
arriving to destroy their religious rivals.

"All Poso people must be crazy to let this all happen and the
leaders have lost control. We do not know exactly what triggered
this war or why we must wage it," he said in an emotional tone.

Tukiyem who has lived in a Muslim transmigration area in Poso
for 15 years, called on security authorities to restore security
and order in Poso to allow displaced peoples to return back to
their home village.

"We came here (Poso) not to take up arms to fight against our
Christian neighbors but to change our life and our children's
future," she said.

Tukiyem a Muslim, along with her husband and their three
children, were placed in the transmigration program at Tegal
Redjo, Central Java, in 1986, and given land and a home in
predominantly Christian Poso. She and her children fled their
village after her husband was killed during fighting in the
village in June, 1999.

She said more than 600 families were still taking refuge in
several camps in the city and they could do nothing but wait for
secure conditions in Poso so that they could go back home.

"We have been here (refugee camp outside Palu city) for two
years and they only give us Rp 1,500 and 400 grams of rice per
person per day. We are unable to meet our daily needs with such
government aid," she said.

The more than 78,000 Poso villagers who are taking refuge in
Palu, Donggala and Morowali regencies in Central Sulawesi,
claimed to have been victimized by a war they do not want, nor
understand. After living in such desperate conditions in exile,
they are hoping to return to their home villages.

Following the outbreak of new clashes in a number of villages
near Tentena over the last two months, more than 38,000 Poso
Christians have taken refuge in North Sulawesi while around
50,000 others have been accommodated in refugee camps, churches
and school buildings in Tentena.

Andi Azikin Suyuti, chief of the local social affairs office,
said the local administration had offered three alternatives for
the refugees to choose from. They could resettle in Palu under a
special program, stay at the camps and wait for peace or return
home and hope for peace.

"So far, the local administration with the help of the central
government has built more than 1,000 simple houses for those who
choose to stay in Palu regency," he said.

Meanwhile, Yus Mangun, coordinator of the Poso refugee camps
in Palu said that so far, 70 refugees, mostly children, have died
of malnutrition, lung infections or diarrhea and more than 130
others are undergoing medical treatment in a general hospital in
the town.

"Of the 130, 84 are undergoing medical treatment for what is
believed to be post-traumatic stress disorder, in a special
hospital in Mamboro town," he said.

Following the deployment of thousands of military and police
last week, a gradual calm settled over Poso and hundreds of
Muslim refugees have returned home to celebrate the recent Idul
Fitri.

"We are going to return home because of the relative calm in
Poso," Mrs. Ida, a Gebangredjo villager, said

Mrs. Irawati, a civil servant in Poso, said she and her family
would stay permanently in Poso.

She called on delegates of the two warring factions, who are
currently meeting in Malino, South Sulawesi, to use the Idul
Fitri and Christmas holidays as momentum to create a permanent
peace in Poso.

"We want to live as neighbors with Christians because the
three-year-long conflict has brought a lot of suffering to both
sides," she said.

The transmigration program, which sent Javanese Muslims to
Christian areas such as Maluku, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Timor,
and gave them land and homes, has been blamed for the ethnic and
religious enmity between Muslims and Christians. The Soeharto
government officially claimed the program was to alleviate
overpopulation on Java, but experts claim that it was an attempt
to convert Christian areas to Islam and enable the central
government to install local Javanese authorities throughout the
archipelago.

When the iron-fisted Soeharto fell in 1998, so too did the
semblance of harmony among the religions as people felt more
freedom to express resentment and the result has been widespread
conflict, violence, death and mayhem.