War will never kill my ideals, says refugee child

Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Spending his days on crutches, 15-year-old Agusni Nurdin is not at all deterred from aspiring to be a physician.

"I have to strive to become a doctor," he told The Jakarta Post at the Jeumpa Mirah refugee camp in Banda Aceh on Tuesday.

To this teenager, medicine is a noble profession and doctors are people who dedicate their lives to the victims of the armed conflicts in the war-torn province.

Agus, however, almost became discouraged when he had a bullet fragment in his thigh for 15 days, despite the surgery he underwent at the Langsa General Hospital to remove it.

Only after his parents raised Rp 20 million from the sale of their rice field was Agus taken to Adam Malik Hospital in Medan, North Sumatra, to have the fragment removed. He spent two weeks in the hospital rehabilitating his deteriorated thigh muscle.

Recounting his misfortune, Agus said that on the fateful day he was shot, Oct. 21, 2001, he was watching over the paddy crops in the field of his parents in Keumuneng village, Idi Rayek district, East Aceh, when about 20 people in military uniforms armed with long-barreled rifles passed by on patrol.

"All at once, soldiers opened fire on me from a distance of around 30 meters. After they shot me, they came over to have a look. When they saw I was a kid and student, they offered to me hospital treatment, which I politely turned down. Some villagers finally took me to the general hospital," he said.

Following a two-week stay at the Adam Malik Hospital, Agus returned home. But feeling unsafe in the village, the whole family took refuge in Banda Aceh.

"We have nothing left at home," said Agus' 52-year-old mother, Saudah.

Agus, the youngest of five children, had to drop out of Geurubak junior high school because his 55-year-old father, Nurdin, was unable to work because of illness.

Agus said that despite the difficult situation, he was confident the time would come for him to continue his studies toward becoming a physician.

"I can't do it now, but the war will never kill the ideals in my mind," he said.

Agus is among 50 people from his village who have taken refuge at the Ar-Raniry Teaching Institute in Banda Aceh since April 4. Some 12 of the refugees are between the ages of seven and 15.

The violence and arson attacks have traumatized many villagers, leaving them anxious about leaving their homes and seeing strangers. And the situation is even worse for the children.

"The children's future is threatened without a formal education," said Faurizal Mukhtar, the secretary-general of Jeumpa Mirah, an antiviolence student group.

Maida Ilyas, a 10-year-old girl from Jambo Dalem village, Trumon district, South Aceh, has another story. The fourth grader had to seek refuge along with 10 other families from her village in Banda Aceh.

Yet she is more fortunate than Agus. Though she lives in a camp run by the Student Executive Board (BEMA) of IAIN Ar-Raniry, Maida still has the opportunity to go to a nearby primary school.

And Maida, too, wishes to become a physician. "I'd like very much to be a doctor," said Maida when asked about her ideal job.

Maida and her mother, along with the rest of her village, were forced to move after their houses and property in Jambo Dalem, South Aceh, were razed on Feb. 22.

The BEMA camp in Banda Aceh shelters a total of 125 refugees from Central Aceh, North Aceh, East Aceh and South Aceh. Camp coordinator Teuku Riza Fahmi said 35 of the refugees were children under the age of 15.

These children, who are only a small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of children displaced by the prolonged conflict in the province, go to special classes run by the institute's students.

The difficult lives of Agus and Maida mirror the situation of tens of thousands -- possibly even hundreds of thousands -- of school-age children in Aceh who have been forced to abandon their educations.