Refugees still want to go home to Sampit

Yogita Tahilramani and Edith Hartanto, The Jakarta Post, Sampang, Madura

Sixty-year-old refugee Wafir, a neighborhood unit head in Sampit and a teacher, said that he spent his days wondering how things went so horribly wrong.

"One day, we were told the Dayaks were coming to attack us, and we were informed by the security forces to take refuge at the local administration's office. The next thing we knew, our houses were burned down.

"Whether it was done by Dayaks or the security forces, we do not know, because we were immediately evacuated," Wafir said.

"As soon as things started to erupt, ships were prepared and readied to carry us off to Sampang. How those ships were prepared so quickly to carry us off, we don't know."

Grandmother Sa'anah's old glittering eyes tell people that she has seen too much horror in her life.

"I was born in Sampit during the Dutch colonial era. I also survived the Japanese occupation. We have six generations living in Kalimantan and I have 16 great grandchildren. But God, living in Sampang is too much even for a woman like me to bear," Saanah said.

In contrast to the dry land and tiny housing unit she has right now, back at her hometown in Kampung Tampiangang in Batuah village, Central Kalimantan, Sa'anah and her extensive family have large plots of land with various crops to be managed and cultivated.

"I want to go home to Sampit because that's where we belong. Even though we have Madurese blood, we were born in Sampit. We are aliens to the Madurese here," Sa'anah said, her eyes close to tears.

"Why does the government keep on giving us false hope?

"They should have sent us home. One of my (Madurese) nephews has just returned from Sampit and he said that actually the situation is quite secure. We certainly have a lot of work to do once we get home and have placed my grandchildren in school," she said.

Saanah, along with her family, witnessed the worst episode of bloody ethnic conflict between the Madurese and the Dayaks in Central Kalimantan about two years ago. Painful memories of their lost loved ones, horrendous scenes of slaughtered women and children, headless corpses and mutilated remains of Madurese are likely to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Her grandson Sudarno said that Madurese refugees at his camp were relatively enlightened in terms of political matters and were not easily fooled.

"Many local party executives from the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB) tried to win our support. We are not fools though.

They said that if you join PPP, you'll be guaranteed a place in heaven. What we want is a decent job and better earnings. We don't care about politics," Sudarno said.