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.