Reality hits young migrant hard in the face
Reality hits young migrant hard in the face
Mohammad Marwan, Agence France-Presse, Lhok Nga, Aceh
In search of a better life, 21-year-old Ramadani moved to
Indonesia's Aceh province to work as a salesman, but instead he
found himself facing the cold reality of decades of conflict
between separatist rebels and government forces.
The skinny, dark-skinned youth was abducted by two gunmen
while selling mosquito repellent door to door in this coastal
town southwest of the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh, on just his
seventh day of work there in mid February.
Accused of being a spy for the Indonesian armed forces,
Ramadani was blindfolded and taken by two men on a motorcycle to
a place which he later discovered was one of the guerrilla bases
of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
The GAM has been fighting for a free state since 1976 but has
come under massive attack from government forces since Jakarta
imposed martial law in Aceh last month and launched military
operations to rid the province of the guerrillas.
Despite continuous denials from Ramadani -- who has only nine
years of schooling and comes from Medan, a dense urban center in
the neighboring province of North Sumatra -- his captor did not
relent and he was kept a solitary prisoner there for four months.
He spent most of his days chained up in a dank space under a
house on stilts. He was fed only once a day and allowed to clean
himself once a week.
"My hands were bound and my feet were bound by a chain of some
two meters," he said, adding that the space below the house was
only about one meter high, making it impossible for him to stand
up.
Talking to journalists who met him at the Lhok Nga military
subdistrict post where he has been sheltered since he regained
freedom, Ramadani said in his very simple manner that he had been
continuously tortured and manhandled during his detention.
"Sometimes, they do not even feed me but only forced me to
smoke cigarettes continuously until I have stiff lips and become
faint," he said.
His luck turned on May 21 when his captor released him and
told him to run to divert attention as government forces shelled
the area during a clash with the rebels there.
His weak condition only allowed him to run for some three
meters before he fell as shots flew around him.
He dragged himself to a nearby tree and remained there until
the following morning, too afraid to move.
The area was deserted when he woke up and as he ambled
aimlessly, he found a jacket and a pair of shoes to ward off the
cold of the night.
He walked for days and unknowingly entered the dense Glee
Mulieng forest, a rough terrain just 25 kilometers south of the
Aceh capital.
"Every day, only the chirping of birds and the cries of
monkeys kept me company," Ramadani said of his unplanned seven-
day trek into the forest.
He drank from a small stream he was following and the only
solid food he had was a coconut he found just hours before he
found a village some 12 kilometers south of Banda Aceh.
Villagers gave him food and took him to the Lhok Nga
subdistrict military post where has remained since to recover
before he can return home to Medan.
"I can only wish that this does not happen to anyone else,"
Ramadani said of his ordeal.