Will Aceh's hungry kids one day take up arms?

By Ibnu Matnoor

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): He is only nine years old and he does not want to be a beggar. Yet there is no other way to put food on his family's table.

"I have to beg in order to buy rice for my mother and brother," said Muhammad Ridha at a rice store in Matang Geulumpung Dua, Bireuen regency, in strife-torn Aceh last week.

He said he was born in Ulee Gle village, Samalanga subdistrict. "My father's name was Abdullah. He died five years ago."

Muhammad Ridha said he was told his father was shot dead by a member of the military when the province was a military operation area (DOM). When he was six, his mother took him and his infant brother to Mbang in North Aceh, 24 kilometers south of Lhokseumawe.

They lived in a resettlement area for people uprooted from their homes for the Lhokseumawe industrial zone in the 1970s.

"I had the opportunity to go to school until the second grade of elementary school. When we moved to Lhokseumawe one year ago, I quit school," he said.

In Lhokseumawe his mother, Kak Ti, rented a room for Rp 40,000 per month. She and her children beg to pay the rent and cover their daily needs.

While other children Muhammad Rhida's age are brought to school by their parents in the morning, he is in filthy clothes and on his way to Matang Geulumpang Dua. "The bus fare for a little kid like me is only Rp 1,000."

He said he earned from Rp 5,000 to Rp 10,000 per day from begging. "It's with that money that my mother buys rice," he said.

Rhida said he wanted to go to school but his only option was to beg.

"If someone wants to send me to school, I will go. But if I have to stay with that person, I am afraid nobody will give my mother money to buy rice," he said with a faraway look in his eyes.

There are believed to be tens of thousands of children left fatherless from violence during the military operation from 1989 to 1998. The Forum of Human Rights Care (FPHAM) in Aceh said at least 16,375 children were orphaned.

The data were for the four regencies of Pidie, Bireuen, North Aceh and East Aceh.

"The issue is that it was in the four regencies that the violations of human rights were heaviest during the period," said FPHAM Aceh's executive director Saifuddin Bantasyum.

Anak Bangsa Foundation (YAB) in Banda Aceh revealed last week during a charity even for children its latest findings that there were 54,000 children under 18 years old classified as neglected.

Executive director of Banda Aceh YAB Kamal J. Farza said the children did not have access to education and lived in absolute poverty. "Five hundred of them have received legal advice and companionship from us."

Date from Aceh's provincial education office said most of the province's 4.5 million people were under 18. About 250,000 are between six years and 12 years; there are 212,000 children enrolled in elementary schools in Aceh.

Office head Syahbuddin AR said that apart from the dropouts there were 64,000 children "threatened" with losing their schooling. This is due to the destruction of a number of schools, their equipment and facilities by fire, most of them deliberately set.

A total of 142 schools -- 142 elementary schools, 52 junior highs and 22 high schools -- were set on fire through April 2000. Not all of the damage has been repaired.

"If it is not done soon, 63,000 students due to start studying on July 17 are threatened with dropping out of school," he said.

Observers worry that the lack of adequate attention to children is what leads to them becoming disaffected and eventually joining forces with the rebels.

Investigations by The Jakarta Post found that most young people recruited to the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) after the signing of a peace agreement in Switzerland on May 12 were those whose parents were killed, missing or tortured during the military operation. Many were dropouts.

Most of the young male recruits are undergoing training for combat. Some are being trained in intelligence, or given light tasks as informers in their villages.

Most of the young women recruited to GAM's women special troops are assigned as informers and for intelligence activities.

They have only one goal in life -- to liberate Aceh from "Indonesia Jawa" (Javanese Indonesia), their derisive term for Indonesia.

Since most youngsters are elementary school dropouts, it's difficult to have a rational dialog with them on the advantages and disadvantages of using violence in their bid for freedom.

"Now, there is only one remedy that can cure our children's heartache, namely independence," said Darmawati, a widow from Pidie. Her two sons were still young when their father and eldest brother were killed by soldiers. Now grown up, the young men have joined GAM.

The 45-year-old former elementary school teacher said the soldiers sadistically killed her husband and son because they accused her of being an informer for the rebels.

Military Operations Area (DOM) victims (1989 -1998)

Killed : 1,321 persons Missing : 1,958 " Tortured : 3,430 " Raped : 128 " Harassed : 81 " Fatherless : 16,375 "

Source: The Forum of Human Rights Care, Aceh

Post-DOM Victims (August 1998 to 30 April 2000)

Dead/Missing : 5,533 persons Tortured : 1,201 " Raped : 164 " Sexually harassed : 96 " Buildings burned : 1,621 units Shops burned : 360 " Shop-houses burned : 115 " Motorbikes burned : 396 " Cars burned : 86 " Elementary schools burned : 183 " Secondary schools burned : 71 " High schools burned : 52 "

Source: Yadesa Foundation, Banda Aceh