Traumatized Acehnese refugees still reluctant to return home
Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Lhoknibong, East Aceh
Khatijah Abdullah, 38, a refugee sheltering in Lhoknibong district, East Aceh, could only manage a fake smile when her four children asked for new clothes for Idul Fitri.
"The children are not aware that we are living in an emergency situation. They keep asking for new clothes ... even when getting food is hard for us," she said.
Khatijah said that she and other refugees in Lhoknibong had eaten chicken and duck on Idul Fitri in a bid to please the children. Normally, they eat beef as part of the celebrations. "We cannot afford to buy a cow," she said.
She left her home in Alue Ie Mirah village, Kuta Binje, Julok district, East Aceh, along with 500 others in May 2001 when violence darkened her doorstep.
The villagers left after the Indonesian Military (TNI) shot and killed housewife Saudah, 38, for reasons unknown to the villagers, and built a security post in the village.
"We started leaving our homes as we felt insecure with the military presence in the village."
The villagers were forced to abandon their valuables, including their cattle and walk through dense jungle for 25 kilometers to Lhoknibong district.
Meanwhile, village head Usman Wahab fled to the town of Langsa to stay with relatives.
The refugees lived in a mosque for a month before erecting makeshift cubicles in the village's traditional market. They also built a makeshift bathroom at the back of the market.
Many of the refugees then began asking for alms on the main road connecting East Aceh and the North Sumatra capital of Medan.
Some of them became workers on farms and coffee plantations in the district. They are able to send their children to an elementary school near the market.
"The internally displaced people in Lhoknibong have survived for almost two years but they still need help," Marzuki, coordinator of East Aceh's People Crisis Center, said.
Alue Ie Mirah is known for its rubber plantations. Each of the villagers owned two-hectares of rubber trees they had bought from state-own plantation company PTP-I Julok.
Khatijah recalled that before the bloody killing, the villagers were living harmoniously with transmigrants in the village.
Following the incident, the migrants went to Medan, the capital city of North Sumatra, to stage hunger strikes and protests to demand the province provide living allowances of as much as Rp 10 million (US$1,100) per family.
The North Sumatra administration then agreed to pay a small allowance.
"While we, the Acehnese, did not demand anything and have had to stand on our feet to live in this place without any assistance from the government for almost two years," Khatijah said.
The refugees were heartened when the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government signed a peace deal last week.
However, they are still fearful of returning home after having been traumatized by war.
"We hope the agreement will last forever. But honestly, we are still afraid to return to our village since we still need to deal with the trauma that occurred in our village," Tengku Maddeli, one of refugees, said.
Khatijah and Maddeli hoped peace in the province could stay as the warring parties worked through the agreement.