Two Americans still feel safe and at home in Yogyakarta

Two Americans still feel safe and at home in Yogyakarta

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

While governments around the world are issuing warnings to their
citizens to get out of Indonesia and warning them of terrorist
threats in some places including Yogyakarta, at least two
foreigners have decided to stay put.

The two Americans are Shannon Stancil -- a volunteer presently
assigned at the Indonesian Islamic University's legal aid and
consultation institute (LKBH UII), and Sydney Snyder, an English
lecturer at Gadjah Mada University's School of Letters.

Stancil of Florida, who works for non-governmental
organization Volunteer in Asia (VIA) and is assigned to help
improving the English competence of the institute's members of
staff, said she did not want to go home. Stancil has been working
at the institute since 1 Sept. and her contract is for a two-year
period.

"I don't know how I will feel in two years, but at present I
very much enjoy living here. I've never felt so welcome in my
life as I feel now," she told journalists at the university's
headquarters on Tuesday.

She said, however, she did not think it was necessarily wrong
for a government to issue a warning, but it would depend on
Americans or other foreign citizens living in Indonesia to decide
for themselves whether they felt safe or not here.

Her family and friends, she added, initially expressed concern
over her decision to stay but they finally understood after she
explained she felt quite safe in Yogyakarta.

"I also have friends who said they were glad that I wanted to
stay and did not want to go home. And they feel that I'm doing
the right thing and that what we need to do now is to strengthen
the relationship between the U.S. and Indonesia," Stancil said.

She went on further saying that the U.S. government was wrong
to accuse Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir of involvement in the
Bali bombings at this point. She said it was a bad idea to accuse
anyone (of committing a terrorist act) without evidence. Instead,
it would only worsen the relationship between the U.S. government
and Indonesia.

"The U.S. Constitution grants a presumption of innocence but
it does not seem that my government is remembering that," Stancil
said.

Sydney Snyder of Gadjah Mada University said she refused to
leave Yogyakarta and her students here, although the U.S. Embassy
in Jakarta had called her twice and requested her to go home.

"I was shocked initially on hearing the request. But how can I
go home? My friends are here. My job is here. My students are
here. My boyfriend is here. My life is here. How can I just leave
all these," Snyder told a packed audience while speaking at a
dialog held at the campus of economic science college STIEKers on
Jl. Parangtritis last week.

Snyder said she could not understand why the U.S. government
asked her to leave the country and that she got very angry
because her government was trying to make her a kind of a
political pawn.

"They (the U.S. government) want to turn my life upside down
merely because they want the Indonesian government to be more
serious in dealing with terrorism. I refuse to be made a
political pawn. I don't want to ... I don't want to," she said to
the loud applause from the audience.

However, she admitted she was actually afraid but not because
she lived in Indonesia or in Yogyakarta, but more because there
were many angry people in the world and they wanted everybody to
know they were very angry.

"I'm afraid because there are unseen wars. I'm afraid because
my president thinks that violence is more effective than dialog.
In today's world, we have stopped conducting dialogs. What we
want to see is just two different parties. Me or you. Them and
us. We are good and they are bad."

Besides, she had a good reason to stay.

"Why am I still here? It's because at this particular time it
is important for us to discuss this global situation. We have to
stop humiliating and blaming others. It's useless. It's a waste
of time. Everyone knows that terrorism is not good. Everyone
knows that the U.S. government's policies are not good. But there
is no need to point fingers and blame others. We have to start
dialogs and discussions."