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Source : http://www.tempointeraktif.com/majalah/free/cov-1.html
MY house was swamped." On a 30 x 30 centimeter canvas,
Helmi, 7, wrote this sentence. Using colored pencils, he
drew a gloomy sight: three birds flying over a house. Seawater
had risen up to roof level. Three roosters were running
for their lives. The tsunami wave had struck the small shack.
The onrushing, tumbling water was painted in a light brown.
"This is a picture of my house. I can't draw,"
he said. Around him, other children laughed noisily and
joked in the backyard of the Officer Cadet School complex
of the Iskandar Muda Military Command in Banda Aceh.
Children were swinging or sitting on the branches of a
large tree that hung low, almost touching the ground. Some
squabbled for a chance to show how Tarzan would swing through
the trees.
Iqbal, 12, breakfasted on a plate of rice and sardines.
The boy was sick. His skin was burnt black. A drying wound
could be seen on his right, tapered cheek.
He was daydreaming. When the tsunami came, he had been
playing at the Ibnu Hasyim Islamic boarding school in Lamjame,
Aceh Besar. "There's a fire," people had said.
Apparently a cooker had fallen down as a result of the earthquake
and had set fire to a house. Someone called out "Water,
water." But Iqbal didn't understand: was that person
asking for the fire to be put out or saying there was a
flood?
Then there was a wall of water. Iqbal was quickly caught
up in it but managed to pull himself onto a branch. He climbed
onto a shop but fell off. He was soon swept away by the
water but ended up safe after washing up on a two-story
house.
Together with the others who had survived, Iqbal walked
towards Mata Ie, an area of generally higher ground in Darul
Imarah Regency, Aceh Besar. In the Ketapang refugee camp,
he met two friends from the school. "They were taken
away by their relatives," he said. Iqbal is under the
care of Indonesia's Heritage Foundation, a body that is
working with UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations that
looks after children. "I don't know what's happened
to mum," he said.
Many children of Aceh now live in camps for evacuees, having
been gathered by various organizations and volunteers. They
are scattered, and not all are registered.
The wave leveled villages and towns, and it also disrupted
these children's lives. There have since been subsequent
rumors that Acehnese children have been taken far away:
outside the province, legally adopted without being registered.
"There are indications they were evacuated without
any clear record," said Jose Rizal Jurnalis, a doctor
from the Mer-C volunteer network.
It is still not really clear how many Acehnese children
left their hometowns—whether because of adoption or because
they were temporarily helped to be returned later.
The number could be staggering. UNICEF spokesperson John
Budd estimates that 35,000 children in Aceh are without
families or homes. The National Commission for the Protection
of Children puts the figure at 100,000-300,000.
There are corroborating accounts. In Medan, a volunteer
witnessed one child taken away by someone who was not a
relative. "The parent" told an official the child
was hers. But there seemed to be no resemblance.
In the same city, a mother from Aceh Besar, Haerani, who
lived in a camp managed by the Aceh Agrees Foundation at
kilometer 11.7 on the Medan-Binjai road, told her story.
She said a Belgian wanted her second daughter, Husnul Masita,
now completing her third year of lower high school. Husnul
was to be taken to Surabaya and was promised a better education.
Haerani briefly agreed. But, later, five activists from
the Prosperous Justice Party at the coordination center
challenged the child's move, on the grounds of religious
differences (see Late Nights, too, for Dwiki).
The government has responded swiftly to such cases. Vice
President Jusuf Kalla prohibited the adoption of Acehnese
children and Minister of Social Affairs, Bachtiar Chamsyah,
issued a call for children under 16 not to be taken out
of Aceh. If it was absolutely necessary, the children were
permitted to be taken to Medan—in a situation, for example,
that a child needed medical treatment that could not be
given in Aceh. Nine hospitals have been designated for such
services and all costs will be borne by the state.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's wife Kristiani returned
Muhammad Dede Nirwanda, the 13-year-old from Lhok Nga, Aceh
Besar, who she was set to adopt. The First Lady discovered
the boy in a group of evacuees who had just landed in Medan,
North Sumatra, a few days after the disaster.
Before the ban, large numbers of people indicated they
were interested in adopting Acehnese children. The adoption
application center opened up by the Indonesian Ulamas Council
(MUI), for instance, was crowded. In Padang, hundreds of
people from every corner of Sumatra swarmed in, hoping to
be given a child. In Jakarta, several celebrities said they
wanted to take a child from Aceh—as have the large Islamic
boarding schools in West and East Java. Head of the Aceh
Agrees Foundation's Office of Information and Evacuees—an
NGO headquartered in Medan—M. Natsir Amin has noted more
than a thousand families who have expressed interest in
a child from Aceh.
But some children have already been "relocated"
outside the province. Azhari, 10, for instance, was taken
by Ahmad Fauzy, a Jakarta entrepreneur. Initially, Fauzy
had intended to adopt Azhari, but abandoned the idea because
the boy's grandmother was determined to take care of him.
In Jakarta, there is the story of Emmy Hafild, Secretary-General
of Transparency Indonesia. A week after the disaster, Emmy
and a team of volunteers from various NGOs visited Banda
Aceh.
Seeing so many injured children who needed critical and
immediate treatment, Emmy took the initiative of bringing
them to Jakarta. When the plane arrived at Iskandar Muda
Airport, one of the babies, who was still on an IV drip,
"vanished." Emmy, in a panic, met a reporter who
then introduced her to Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono, Commander
of the Military Task Force stationed in Aceh.
She asked Bambang for help in finding the child that she
wanted to bring to Jakarta. But the sick child had been
taken to the airport in a vehicle owned by the local Army
Hospital (Kesdam). The child was found several hours later
and could finally be brought to Jakarta. "I brought
back 15 children," said Emmy. To dampen the trauma
of the children's relocation, Emmy brought their entire
families with them. "They were brought to be treated,"
she explained.
It is no easy matter to relocate children. The government
acted quickly, but the relocation of children without records
invites many risks, including the danger of selling children.
There remains a lack of sufficient proof for such charges,
apart from the whispers circulating from SMS to SMS. But
some Muslim groups have a more specific concern about the
issue of child adoption: Christianization.
Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) volunteers in Aceh have
posted in public places yellow pamphlets, complete with
the party logo. They read: "Don't allow the Aceh orphans
to be taken by Christians/missionaries." Underneath
they have written the contact address and telephone number
of the evacuee camp run by the PKS.
Cleric Suharsono from PKS Aceh said this step had been
taken because his people had heard reports of the entry
of missionaries into the area, specifically to take away
the children of Aceh. "As fellow Muslims, we must prevent
that," he told Tempo reporter Setiyardi. They have
stepped up their efforts, because, he claims, three children
have already vanished from the Mata Ie evacuee camp after
they were taken away by people claiming to be the children's
family members. "But we have no data on the names,
addresses, and ages of the children. Everything is so make-do,"
he explained.
Is this true?
General Chairman of the Indonesian Communion of Churches
(PGI), Pastor Nathan Setiabudi, firmly denounced the charge.
"If any groups of Christians either within or outside
the PGI are doing that, just report them," he said.
His group would then take action with fellow churches or
jointly with the government to reprove them, or, if necessary,
apply penalties. "But, if this is not happening, it
would be better that those who spread rumors about it should
be held accountable," he said. "We are very concerned,
and this disturbs us all as a nation where we all are in
the midst of great human suffering and difficulty."
Father I. Ismartono S.Y. from the Bishops Council of Indonesia
(KWI) said almost the same. He said that he had been visited
by a private institution that had asked for assistance,
including that for children. The same usually happens every
time there is a disaster that needs to be jointly tackled.
"But not for adoptions." The KWI has now even
issued an internal appeal on this as guidance for its followers.
Whatever they do is bound to be wrong. Letting the children
of Aceh stay on dazed and suffering in cities that have
now become puddles of mud and rubbish is of course not the
right thing to do. But taking them out of Aceh is laden
with dangers of abuse. Taking children away from the location
of the disaster to be given treatment, undergo a cure, or
to avoid more severe psychological disturbances is certainly
praiseworthy. "But, this could be abused," said
the Head of the National Commission for the Protection of
Children, Seto Mulyadi.
One key will be keeping good records. Several NGOs are
now working overtime to check and update their records on
the Acehnese children who appear to have lost all their
relatives. The objective is the regrouping of those families
that have been scattered.
The Information Center of the Aceh Child Center is one
of these. At the evacuee camp in the grounds of TVRI's station,
Banda Aceh, every day its operations center is thronged
with hundreds of people. In general, they are parents and
relatives who have lost children. Many bring photos of their
children with them. Those who have no pictures have equipped
themselves with full data, from the name through the distinguishing
features of their missing little girl or boy. "Please
let us know if this child is found," said Burhan, 41,
to a volunteer.
One resident of Punge Jurong is very depressed over the
fate of his 12-year-old offspring. The child disappeared
when the wave slammed into his house in a densely populated
village. As with other parents, Burhan's search for his
missing young one has ended up at the complaints posts like
this one. Some parents with missing children admit they
have now given up. They have searched for the apples of
their eyes in every corner of Banda Aceh. "I have even
looked among the piles of corpses," Burhan said, his
voice heavy with grief, eyes glistening with tears.
Aceh Child Center Coordinator, Rinaldi, said that by the
day after the center had opened, more than 200 families
had already reported the loss of their children. Data and
pictures of 175 lost or abandoned children had also been
collected. "We have recorded them all," he said.
Around 20 similar centers will be built throughout Aceh
by similar NGOs, with the assistance of UNICEF.
He added that his center has undertaken two steps to gather
data on missing children. First, it has opened complaints
posts in the various pockets of evacuees. Second, it has
combed the evacuation camps to register all those children
who have lost their parents.
The institution will also temporarily accommodate missing
children in collaboration with the Department of Social
Affairs. At the very least, this should ensure the children
are adequately fed and clothed. "We will also help
provide them with recreational facilities," said Rinaldi.
The institution will also hand over to the government those
children whose parents really have gone.
Rinaldi and his friends are in a race against time. Too
many children need to be helped, while too few volunteers
are available. Record-keeping under direction from the Department
of Social Affairs has only begun in the last few days.
Meanwhile, the fate of these children is becoming ever
more uncertain. The children of Aceh are—to borrow a phrase
from Chairil Anwar—the stolen and the shattered.
AZ/Y. Tomi Aryanto, Nezar Patria, Setiyardi, and Abdi
Purnomo (Aceh), Jojo Raharjo (Medan), Badriah (Jakarta)
Copyright @ tempointeractive
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