Refugees continue to flow out of Aceh villages

By Ati Nurbaiti and Tarmilin Usman

SIGLI, Aceh (JP): Despite reports of a new police operation to improve security, residents of troubled Pidi regency have continued to flow out of their villages in fear of armed conflicts between separatist guerrillas and military personnel.

Residents of mountainous Tiro district followed on Thursday those who fled Meurudu, Ulim and Bandar Dua over the past three days. The latest estimate of the number of refugees in Pidie was 70,000, according to a Sigli student volunteer outpost, excluding this week's exodus.

A student volunteer in Banda Aceh said that if the refugees do not return home and work their land soon, "We fear food shortage will hit Aceh", given that many of the refugees are farmers.

However, refugees have refused to return, Ridarantau said on Thursday.

Fishermen from Meurudu have brought their boat engines to the refugee camps, fearing that they would be stolen.

Student volunteers in Sigli, the capital of Pidie, denied official reports that refugees were starting to return home. They said the refugees would not go home before Aug. 17, following rumors that separatists would pull down Indonesian flags on the commemoration of Independence Day and carry out intimidation.

On Wednesday it was reported that police and volunteers from campuses in the regency were to coordinate the return of some 22,000 people from Tangse district alone. They have been staying since June 26 at several refugee camps.

Ichsan, a volunteer, said a number of men from Tangse had gathered courage and returned to their villages so they could harvest their crops, including rice, and store it under their stilt homes before heading back to the refugee camps.

A journalist said, "Because they had no money, the refugees were forced to go to their villages, risking their lives, to harvest their coffee and sell it at the nearest market" before dashing back to the camps. Police have said they will provide security and food for returning refugees only for a short period.

Safety

Aceh Police chief Col. Bachrumsyah told The Jakarta Post in Banda Aceh on Wednesday that security personnel could not entirely guarantee the safety of returning refugees.

The volunteers, including campus management staff, had told police that the separatist Free Aceh Movement rebels had assured them they would not harass or harm returning refugees. "But regarding unknown armed groups, I said both security personnel and (those assisting refugees) should watch out," Bachrumsyah said.

While security personnel keep playing down the strength of the Free Aceh Movement, military and police authorities here acknowledge they "do not know" who the armed "hoodlums" are, whose actions, they say, have wrongly been blamed entirely on the Crack Riot Troops.

Police here claim Crack Riot Troops are no longer operating, following an uproar over alleged rights abuses by members. They were earlier deployed to crush rebel groups, and police say they were sent back to their original areas since Operation Sadar Rencong for law enforcement was launched on Aug. 1.

The military has been replaced by police, leaving only local military members, police said.

Bachrumsyah said a few thousand elite Police Mobile Brigade members were needed to safeguard the 600-kilometer highway from Banda Aceh to Lhokseumawe in the north. Several vehicles, including a gas tanker, have been set on fire here, and more than a dozen refugee camps are located nearby.

Bachrumsyah claimed that all 7,000 newly stationed police and military troops had arrived for assignment across Aceh. Three thousand were police and the rest were replacements for various non-combat members such as health, intelligence and information officials, he said.

Military Police are now stationed in all regencies and alleged violations are immediately tackled, he said.

Pidie Police chief Col. Endang E. Bagus told the Post in Sigli on Wednesday that the community was beginning to appreciate the fact that police were now in the front line of law enforcement operations.

"People came to greet officers at the Sigli Police Station," Endang said, saying that people were happy that law enforcers were now persuasive, polite and friendly.

He would not comment on earlier reports that Crack Riot Troop members had intimidated and shot and killed people during road checks.

"If you don't believe me just look along the highway, there are no more military members apart from those at the military command," Endang said.

A driver who encountered a road check in Sigli said on Thursday that such checks were less frightening now. Security personnel "have only been polite in the last few days", Munim said.