Terrorized transmigrants leave Aceh

By Agus Maryono

PURWOKERTO, Central Java (JP): Thousands of frightened Javanese farming families are telling of the terrorization which forced them to flee their resettlement sites in Aceh.

They believe the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) conducted the harassment and say previously friendly locals turned on them in recent months.

GAM leaders contend they have nothing against transmigrants, most of them from Java. They claim their use of the disparaging "Kafir Jawa (Javanese infidels)" refers to the country's rulers and troops dispatched for the military operations which have caused the death of thousands of Acehnese.

Several Acehnese have said they do not believe that GAM members would be involved in violence against civilians, including transmigrants, except if they were believed to be military informants.

Speculation about the perpetrators of violence in Aceh is now focused on armed people outside of GAM, but many are unsure who are the members and leaders of the separatist group. A GAM leader said some of the attackers claim to be separatists.

Transmigrants say they are targeted because of their Javanese origins and the association with the security personnel, most of whom are dispatched from Java.

"They (the guerrillas) think that the Javanese are robbers," said Samin, not his real name.

Inhabitants of a province rich in gas and other natural resources, Acehnese say they have not only been killed and hunted down, but also robbed of their wealth by the central government.

Citing terrorization, extortion and arson of houses, the former settlers said they were eventually left with no choice but to pack up and leave.

"They threatened us with guns. Even one of our friends, Joni from Banyumas, was shot dead by guerrillas. Every member of GAM has weapons," Samin said.

He said he fled the transmigration site in Bukit Hagu village in Lhok Sukon, North Aceh, with his family and 27 other families from Purbalingga.

Samin and his family moved to Bukit Hagu in 1987. He told The Jakarta Post that life in Aceh was initially promising and transmigrants lived harmoniously with locals. He sold tofu in the local market.

"But recently the situation turned into complete chaos. It's not safe anymore."

He said the transmigrants chose to leave because they did not want to lose their lives in the violence. Today he sells peanuts at a bus station at Purbalingga.

"This is better than living in fear. I must put food on the table," the father of three said.

Change

Another tofu seller, Ningsih, also not her real name, was among the group which fled Bukit Hagu.

Ningsih, 50, said the local people became hostile toward the transmigrants once armed groups began roaming through villages.

"I had been living there for 20 years and I never had problems with locals," she said.

"But in the past few months they seemed to have changed ... they looked at us differently, even when I was selling tofu at the market," the mother of nine said.

"Weeks before the migrants left Bukit Hagu, many rebels extorted money from us. They threatened to take all our belongings," Samin said. His brother was told to pay Rp 5 million for his family's protection.

The armed people also burned down the homes of settlers who they disliked, he said. "Six homes of our friends and a cooperative office were gutted in the neighboring village in Jambu Aye district."

Bukit Hagu is now virtually empty, he said, and even the village chief has fled.

The Central Java transmigration office said that 1,247 transmigrant farmers returned with their families, including 1,006 from Aceh, as of July. They relocated to Aceh from Central Java, among the country's poorest areas, to seek a better life.

Most were from the Central Java regencies of Cilacap, Wonosobo, Kendal, Batang, Semarang, Pati, Demak, Tegal, Karanganyar, Boyolali, Purworejo, Purbalingga and Brebes.

Officials said the returned transmigrants were willing to be sent to settlements outside Java on the condition the areas were safe from unrest and ethnic strife.

Central Java Governor Mardiyanto told media in Purwokerto that about 1,000 Javanese migrants returned home from their resettlement sites in Aceh in the past few weeks.

"This is not just happening in Central Java but also in East Java," Mardiyanto said. Among them were natives of Banyumas, Purbalingga and Cilacap.

The administration has decided to temporarily halt the transmigration program to Aceh, he said. "We will wait until the situation returns to normal."