Refugees unlikely to return to riot-ravaged Sabbang

Refugees unlikely to return to riot-ravaged Sabbang

By Jupriadi

UJUNGPANDANG, South Sulawesi (JP): The normally lively Dandang village in the Sabbang subdistrict has been blanketed by silence for the past three weeks. The isolated village, located on the Trans-Sulawesi road, 37 kilometers north of Palopo Luwu, or 487 kilometers north of Ujungpandang, has suddenly turned into a dead city.

At least 26 people have died, 395 houses have been burned and 119 people injured in clashes between residents of different villages between Jan. 11 and Jan. 13 and on Jan. 21. Since then, almost none of those who fled the area have dared to return. Residents who did not joined the evacuation are now leaving their homes, one by one. Now the village is dead.

"Sabbang has no future anymore," the refugees told The Jakarta Post.

Galuh, a 30-year-old mother of three children, said it was highly improbable that she would return to the village. Apart from the fear still haunting her, her cacao plantation was looted and then all her possessions, including her house, were burned to the ground by mobs. Not surprising if the inhabitants, originally from Tana Toraja, who had settled in Dandang since 1986, prefer to leave.

Dandang is one of the six villages which have been totally burned down by mobs as a result of protracted rioting between villages. The Post observed that only rubble remained of the village. The cacao plantation, a dominant feature of the village, has been abandoned by its owners.

The inhabitants' evacuation is well-founded considering the fear of past riots. The memory is a bitter one; feuds between inhabitants broke out in March 1987, March 1994, twice in December 1998 and in January 1999.

Evacuations started in December 1998 but on a small scale. It reached its peak in January when villagers from Sabbang, which had a population of about 5,000, took revenge on each other, killing people and burning houses. The Trans-Sulawesi road was blocked, although afterward it was forcibly opened by security personnel. The closure of a number of elementary schools and a junior high school in the district has also wiped out the people's hope to stay for their children's schooling.

Kampung Baru village chief Ruru said that not only schools, but also places of worship have been closed for one month. Traditional markets are now occupied by cattle, which walk around freely. The village office now only stores goods which have been saved from the riots. It is, at the same time, quarters for male inhabitants who stay and carry out guerrilla warfare in the daytime if news is received that a return attack is about to take place. "The people are very much afraid to stay," he complained.

Takdir, 37, a refugee, said he preferred to return to his village in Bone because apart from his house being destroyed, he did not see any future in Sabbang. Moreover, his house in Rantelabbi village was also looted. "They took my possessions and burned my house."

He said that conflicts between inhabitants, instigated by ill feelings toward new migrants, became more and more frightening after no reconciliation could be reached.

The refugee command post's coordinator, Frans Patoding, said: "How can inhabitants maintain themselves if, after each reconciliation, there are always violators of the agreement." According to him, in the absence of a guarantee of certainty, it is not surprising that the number of refugees, in great as well small numbers, continues to flow. They have returned to the places they originally came from, like Tana Toraja, Bone, Sengkang and Soppeng.

To date, refugees already number in the thousands. This tallies with a statement by unit commander of the mobile brigade command post Kalotok, Sgt. Iskandaria, who was assigned to escort the refugees. "In the first week, there were 50 trucks every day." He said further that the majority of refugees in the first week were children, women and elderly people. "They formed the priority group." The refugees were first accommodated at the refugee command post in Patene Luwu, then they were moved to their destinations.

"I am not sure about their numbers. In the first week there were 400 to 600 people per day," said Patoding.

The increasingly unstable condition at Sabbang now certainly darkens the hope of the refugees to return to the area where they used to find shelter. An inhabitant of Kampung Baru village, Yohannes Kalope, 40, said "Sabbang is not promising anymore." He admitted he was still traumatized by the events which happened on the night of Jan. 12, when all his possessions, including his cacao plantation, were destroyed by crowds run amok. He, his wife and children now have nothing left except a very deep sorrow.

"What I had worked for at Kampung Baru is now like a dream," he said. Counted in his great sorrows is the future of his children, who are now traumatized whenever they hear a big noise. "Trauma reigns in our family," he concluded.

Another story concerns Andreas Deppo, 65, his wife Agnes and their eight children. They are among those who have no close relatives in the new place, and have no idea where to find refuge.

Andreas was at his saddest when their daughter Lusi, 15, who attended junior high school at Salutubo refused to go to school for the past month as she was gripped by fear. "She wanted to become a doctor," he said.

Yohannes, as well as Andreas, can only hope that the local government will take a hand in the matter and handle their problem. "We left our place to join the refugees. We were afraid of being killed if we stayed," he said, adding that he will do some farming in Tana Toraja. There in the tourism area he will also endeavor to send his children to school.

In the middle of the confusion of the refugees who are reluctant to return to Sabbang, the local government must put in extra work. Apart from the restoration of facilities which suffered major damage, they must convince the refugees to return. But if the rioting continues, the community also knows, "What is the use of returning to a place where graves are waiting for us?"