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.