Refugees want to return home

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra

Some 2,000 Acehnese refugees now being sheltered in a number of camps in Langkat, North Sumatra, have expressed their willingness to return to their homes despite poor security conditions in the strife-torn province.

The refugees left their homes more than eight months ago due to either intimidation by members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) or due to the armed conflict between GAM and the military and police personnel. They demanded that the government compensate them for their belongings lost during and after their escape from the conflict area.

Refugees who are married are willing to return to their homelands in the East Aceh regency, while those who are still single have opted to resettle under the government-sponsored transmigration program.

Suryadi Awal, coordinator of what he called the Acehnese Refugees in North Sumatra (ARSINS), said that based on their rough calculation each family suffered between Rp 30 million (US$2,858) and Rp 40 million in losses due to losing their belongings and in the conflict.

The 2,000 refugees, according to Suryadi, should have returned to their home villages last July, "but their departure was canceled due to the worsening security situation in the province."

The East Aceh regency administration in July prepared a safe transit area for the refugees in Kejuruan Muda, Kuala Simpang district. The administration later canceled the plan due to the worsening situation in the area and moved the transit place to Pulau Tiga village in neighboring Tamiang Hulu district. "But Regent Azman Usmanuddin also canceled the second plan because of the poor security in the area," Suryadi added.

"We are still waiting for the regent to fulfill his promise to enable the refugees to return. They want to return soon. They cannot stand living in camps any longer," Suryadi told The Jakarta Post.

Refugee camps in Langkat regency, the closest area in North Sumatra to its restive neighbor, are sheltering more than 30,000 refugees. The majority come from the East Aceh, West Aceh and North Aceh regencies. Most refugees fled to North Sumatra between September 1999 and June 2001.

Bachtiar Usman, a 50-year-old refugee from Birin Bayeun, East Aceh, said he could no longer stand living in the refugee camp. "I am worried I will be trapped further into doing things in violation of the law to earn money for my family."

"We may be forced to become robbers to make ends meet," he said, adding that the government should have persuaded them to return to their home villages.

Meanwhile, chief of the North Sumatra provincial social affairs office, Sofyan Nasution, welcomed the refugees' wish to return to their home villages.

"We will ask them to register themselves with the social affairs office, so that we can arrange their return," he told the Post.