Speakers say Aceh refugees need international aid

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of refugees in Aceh need international aid because the government and private parties in the country are not providing them sufficient help, speakers at a discussion on Aceh here said.

Muhammad Ali, who recently came from a refugee camp in Lhokseumawe, said during Thursday's event that "it had been over a year since we were traumatized" and the help of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was urgent.

"We don't know who is behind all this (violence)," he said. "The people only know that the military sets up roadblocks and their driver licenses and vehicle documents are never returned, and that they are sometimes beaten."

"Now the children cannot go to school because their schools have been burned down," Muhammad said, referring to a rash of school burnings over the past few months.

He said many of the 6,200 refugees in one camp suffered from fevers and lung problems.

The independent Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) recently announced there were almost 60,000 refugees in various areas.

Sociologist Otto Syamsudin Ishak, who is based in Banda Aceh, said he feared the refugees' health could deteriorate in the next month if the harvest was not successful.

Apart from the weather factor, "The new trend now is the harassment of refugee camps," he told participants at the discussion, hosted by Kontras.

He said soldiers disturbed the camps' water sources and the refugees' efforts to collect food from passersby.

Military members were "shocked" when residents fled their arrival, he said.

Otto said locals' reaction reflected the fear the 10-year military operation in the province had instilled in residents. The operation was ended last year. "They (residents) now refuse to serve the military and they leave their homes as a sign of rebellion or self-defense."

The military has said residents were being driven from their homes by separatists.

Acehnese participants at the talks said the separatist Free Aceh Movement had never been known to burn buses and schools.

At the event, a woman, Rosmita, appealed to authorities to return her two sons, who were both employees at the state-owned electricity company. One was taken in early 1998 and the other was taken earlier this month, she said. "They are not involved in the Free Aceh Movement."

She said that since her sons were taken by the military, she had not been allowed to see them.

A former politician with the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) reported cases of violence against women, including mass rapes.

"We ask, what if the victims were daughters of (President B.J.) Habibie and (military commander Gen.) Wiranto," Nursita Andi said, adding that the latest reported rape occurred last week.

Separately, Minister of Justice Muladi said at the House of Representatives an independent team to investigate cases of violence in Aceh would soon be established.

A member of the National Commission on Human Rights, Samsudin, a former military officer, said the commission refused to participate in the team because of the time limit placed on cases the team would be allowed to investigate. This time limit means alleged human rights abuses committed during the 10-year military operation will not be investigated by the team.

He said the national commission would continue its efforts to establish another team to investigate alleged abuses in Aceh. "The government has a continuing responsibility from one period to another."

Gen. Wiranto earlier said the public should remember that several soldiers were also the victims of rights abuses in Aceh. (anr)