Seunebok refugees need help to get back home

Seunebok refugees need help to get back home

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, East Aceh

As the sun sets in rural Alue Ie Mirah, residents shut their
doors as a group of rubber tappers slowly make their way home
from a hard day's work.

The tappers pass the tidy village houses down to the poorer
end of town, where makeshift shacks of wood and nipa palm are
jammed close together, in a kind of country slum.

"We took refuge here after martial law was declared in 2003,"
Aminah, 50, tells The Jakarta Post.

Announced on May 19 by then-president Megawati Soekarnoputri,
martial law came after series of peace talks between the
government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders collapsed.

The day after, the Indonesian Military (TNI) began a major
offensive throughout the province aiming to crush the rebels.
Gunfire crackled throughout Aceh as soldiers raided villages,
with soldiers reportedly beating and firing on unarmed civilians
as they raided suspected GAM strongholds in the hunt for rebels.

During the year of martial law TNI leaders estimated that more
than 2,000 suspected GAM rebels were killed, but human rights
organizations put the figure higher and say many of these
suspected rebels were likely to have been innocent civilians.

Fearing for their lives, Aminah and her family were some of
the thousands of villagers in the hottest areas who fled to safer
spots.

At least 420 families fled from Seunebok subdistrict, most of
them rubber tappers, taking refuge in Alue Ie Mirah about 10
kilometers away.

"Our area was no longer safe. Fighting was frequent and we
were worried that we would be shot dead," Aminah said.

Their worst fears were realized when news came that eight
villagers had been found dead in Seunebok with their throats cut,
causing another wave of refugees to leave the area. On successive
returns to their village they found the black hulks of torched
houses and schools as their untended crops withered.

Living in Alue Ie Mirah, the villagers now travel 10-
kilometers to the nipa palm and rubber plantations in Seunebok
every day, returning to sleep at night at the camp.

Life has been tough, Aminah says. There is little sanitation
in the camp, diseases are common and disruptions to their work
caused by the frequent fighting meant they could not afford to
send their children to school. "We have no money," she said.

Local leader Muawiyah Abdurrahman said that despite their
plight neither the provincial or central governments had been
interested in helping them.

However, despite this dark chapter in their lives, things are
looking up for the villagers. They hope the peace deal signed in
Helsinki last month by GAM and the government will mean they are
eventually able to return home. But without the state's
assistance, the villagers say they won't be going anywhere soon.

"We want to return home. But we need help as many our homes
have been burned down and our lands have been abandoned because
of the prolonged conflict," Muawiyah said.