Tsunami survivors in Aceh start moving to barracks

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post, Lhokseumawe

Yakub, chief of Jambo Timur village in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, was glad that tsunami refugees from the area had been moved to the newly built barracks, located right next to the tents they had stayed in previously.

"It's cooler here than in the tents," he told The Jakarta Post outside the room he shares with his wife and two of his children last week.

The temporary homes are made of wooden planks with bright green windows and doors. Each dorm is divided into 12 identical rooms measuring five meters by four meters, and in front of the rooms there is a long terrace about 1.5 meters wide.

Although the family moved in only a few days ago, Yakub has managed to build a plywood wall to divide the space and buy a cabinet for their clothes. His wife, Aminah, hangs a blue curtain as a door between the two small rooms and has put several pictures on the wall.

"We got the room empty. We filled it up and decorated it ourselves," said Yakub.

The 50-year-old chief was among the first of the victims of last December's catastrophic tsunami to try out the temporary houses in Punteut, Blangmangat district, in Lhokseumawe municipality. Ten wooden barracks there, with 120 rooms in total, are now home for about 168 families -- some rooms have two, or even three families living there.

"I heard they are planning to build barracks for 50 other families here, but I don't know when they're going to start," said Yakub.

Aside from the dorms, the complex also has two community spaces, where children study and play while adults hold regular Koran recitations. A mobile health unit from Koesma regional hospital in Tuban, East Java, was also stationed in the compound.

The North Aceh regency, where about 19,000 refugees have not returned to their shattered villages, is constructing some 103 barracks throughout a number of villages.

"The barracks are between 80 percent and 90 percent ready," said North Aceh administration spokesman Azhari Hasan. Last Friday, some of the refugees in Samudra district moved in to inhabit the dorms on stilts in the area.

"The barracks here (in the regency) can only house about 4,153 people, but we're planning to build more," said Hasan. In the plan, Sinudun district, for example, would have 84 more temporary houses, he said.

However it was unclear when the second phase of the construction would commence, he added.

Not all villagers are as eager as Yakub to enter the barracks. Refugees have reportedly refused to enter the barracks in Reuleut district, as the area is located 10 kilometers away from the sea where most of the men fish.

"We have offered them daily transportation to and from the sea, using trucks," said Hasan. "The villagers are still considering whether they will refuse the offer. They have not made an official letter as requested by the regent."

For Yakub, living temporarily a bit far from the beach was not a problem, as his shrimp farms were washed away by the giant waves.

"I'll need a lot of money to start again," he said. "In the meantime, I'll stay here."