Refugees eager to return to devastated resort for work

Refugees eager to return to devastated resort for work

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Refugees have asked the Kampar regency administration in North
Sumatra to speed up the rebuilding of Bukit Lawang resort town,
which was devastated by last month's flash flood, in order for
them to again start making money from the tourist trade that they
work in.

The local government decided to close the resort in Bahorok
subdistrict for renovations that would last for six months after
the Nov. 2 flood that left at least 157 people dead and 87 others
who are still officially considered missing, but presumed dead.

However, the displaced families said it was six months was far
too long for them to be without an income source, and they are
eager to resume business in the popular resort.

Indra Hasyim, 41, who owned a cottage in the hilly area, said
on Friday he did not know what to do earn money and survive
except to wait to return to Bukit Lawang.

"I hope the local administration will speed up the renovation
process, because living in a refugee camp offers no chance to
earn money. I have to feed my family," said Indra, a father of
three and married to an Australian woman.

He has been running his tourism business for more than seven
years.

Another refugee, Abdi B. Siregar, 35, said that the longer the
administration waited to repair the resort, the more sorrow the
victims would feel as they could not live normally in camps.

"I just want to continue my life as it used to be. It's so
difficult for me to stay here and doing nothing. I need to be
busy doing working so I can stop pondering about my family who I
miss desperately," he told The Jakarta Post.

Abdi lost his wife and two children who all drowned as the
floodwaters that ripped through the resort town. Their bodies
remain missing.

State Minister of Tourism and Culture I Gde Ardhika visited
the devastated area on Friday and promised to restore and develop
the resort based on an eco-tourism concept.

This means the establishment of new resettlement areas would
be banned near the Bahorok riverbank, he added.

"The previous tourism concept developed here by the regency
administration was not correct, because it allowed the creation
of resettlement areas," he said.

The minister said that under the renovation plans, he would
ask the Langkat government to focus on three main principles of
the eco-tourism concept -- to sustain the environment, create an
educational place and make use of local human resources.

During the visit, he, along with dozens of refugees and other
survivors, also held prayers for those killed in the flood widely
blamed on rampant illegal logging up river in the Mount Leuser
National Park.

Bahorok is on the eastern edge of the park and is home to an
orangutan reserve popular among domestic and foreign tourists,
who go trekking and whitewater rafting there.

Data showed that before the disaster, up to 3,000 local and
foreign tourists visited Bukit Lawang each day.