Traumatized Acehnese refugees still reluctant to return home
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.