Those Who Lost and Were Uprooted
A farmer works on hisrice field in Buru Island, Maluku, on Wednesday (5/4). Buru Island is now one of the food barns of Maluku, due to its abundant rice production. Before the arrival of political prisoners accused of colluding with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), the islandwas a jungle. Their arrival (1969-1979) has transformed Buru Island into a productive agricultural area. Now, most residents depend on rice farming.
“…a handful of foreign journalists have tried to discredit the political prison on Buru as an Indonesian version of a Digul, or a concentration camp. They seem to forget that, as history has shown, wars always bring consequences to those who lose.” (Soeharto, as quoted by IG Krisnadi in Buru Island Political Prisoners)
Battles among political elites have always resulted in common people suddenly realizing that they are on the losing side. Even without clear knowledge about what had transpired and what their exact roles had been, these people who lost were forced to face various risks, including the deprivation of basic rights.
Such people can be found on Buru Island in Maluku and in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, among other places.
Between 1969 and 1972, thousands of people alleged to have been involved, either as members or not, in Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) activities were sent to Buru Island. IG Krisnadi in his book Tahanan Politik Pulau Buru 1969-1979 (Buru Island Political Prisoners 1969-1979) recorded that 10,652 people were sent to the island as of 1972. Included among them were family members of political prisoners.
In 1969, 2,500 political prisoners were sent from Java to Buru Island. A majority of them had spent time in prison, including in Salemba (Jakarta) and Nusakambangan (Central Java). In 1970, 5,000 more political prisoners were transported to Buru. In 1971, 2,500 more were sent to the island.
In 1972, the government offered family members of political prisoners the chance to join the prisoners on the island. Not all accepted the offer, as it meant the complete exile of entire families. However, many accepted the offer. In July 1972, 164 wives, 485 children and three mothers joined their husbands, fathers and sons on Buru.
Sudarsini, 50, the daughter of the late Rabimin, was one family member who accepted the offer. At her home in Savanajaya village, Waeapo district, Buru regency, in early April, Sudarsini told the story of how she and her mother, grandmother, a younger sibling and three older siblings joined her father on Buru as there was no better options in their hometown of Yogyakarta.
“I was just a small girl when I was brought here. My mother told me that my older sibling refused to come here. Finally, my father personally wrote a letter saying that life would be better in Buru. We could go to school and be close to him. Back when we were little, we felt no sadness about coming here. We were happy that we could be close with Dad,” she said.
Now, Sudarsini lives in a semi-permanent home that has two bedrooms, a kitchen and a living room. The living room is used as a mini library in Savanajaya village. With two bookshelves and numerous books, the room is a place where local children play and read every day.
Savanajaya looks just like a Javanese village. The houses are made of meranti wood and have corrugated metal roofs. The former political prisoners and their families live side by side with Javanese transmigrants who came to the island in 1980.
A majority of the political prisoners released between 1977 and 1979 have returned to Java. However, 298 former political prisoners chose to remain on Buru and had their status changed to that of transmigrant. Of this number, in 1979, 209 lived with their families in Savanajaya and the rest were bachelors. Some of these bachelors later married locals, children of other political prisoners or transmigrants.
Diro Utomo, an 80-year-old former political prisoner, said he had no reason to return to his hometown of Boyolali, Central Java, after his wife died. “I ended up marrying a local and decided to live here. There was nothing left for me in Java,” he said.
Diro arrived on Buru in 1971. Previously, he was moved between prisons over a five-year period, before arriving on Nusakambangan and being transported to Buru by sea. At the time, he left behind a pregnant wife and a toddler. After some time in prison, he was informed that his newborn had died and that his mother was taking care of his other child.
Djamal Marsudi in his book Laporan Pertama dari Pulau Buru (First Report from Buru Island) said that the people sent to Buru were classified as B-group political prisoners, namely those alleged to have been members of either the PKI or its organizational wings who memberships could not be proven. In Buru, these political prisoners worked as farmers to grow produce for sustenance and to be sold at local markets.
Repatriation
Between 1974 and 1977, new international political dynamics took place. US President Richard Nixon visited Moscow in 1974 and US President Jimmy Carter (1977-1981) normalized US-Chinese relations.
In line with this, funding assistance from the US flowed into Indonesia. The US Congress in 1975 approved a US$19 million military assistance package for Indonesia. US military assistance for Indonesia from 1970 to 1975 reached US$65.8 million, which was realized in warship weaponry and equipment, airplanes, light and heavy infantry weapons and communication radio equipment (Kompas, 9/1/1976).
However, in order to obtain this assistance, Indonesia had to ratify the International Declaration on Human Rights.
In line with this, the government released political prisoners on Buru Island in several stages between 1977 and 1979. Distinguished writer Pramoedya Ananta Toer, a former Buru political prisoner, wrote a thank-you letter to US President Bill Clinton in 1993 for the US’ help in securing his freedom.
“Together with thousands of other political prisoners on Buru Island and other prison camps in Indonesia back then, I am eternally grateful to Mr. Carter (US President Jimmy Carter). It is thanks in a large part to his stance on human rights that our release was made possible,” Pramoedya wrote in the letter, as quoted by IG Krisnadi in his book.
While the problem on Buru was resolved, another problem brewed in East Timor, which was part of Indonesia from 1975 until 1999.
Trauma
In the 18 years since the 1999 referendum that turned East Timor into a sovereign state called Timor Leste, some 150,000 former East Timor refugees have lived in poverty in a number of regions in East Nusa Tenggara. Besides facing hardship, some of them are still traumatized by the violence surrounding the 1999 referendum.
Some of the new residents, as locals call the former East Timor refugees, have re-established connection with their cultural and social roots through communication and visits with relatives in Timor Leste.
Nevertheless, some still hold grudges and live in fear as a result of their reluctance to return to their homeland. Some of these refugees refused to return to their hometowns in Timor Leste.
In Atambua, Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara, they live in wooden houses with corrugated metal roofs. The houses on government land were constructed with financial aid from the government. Data from Uni Timor Aswa’ain (Untas), an organization for former East Timor refugees in Belu regency, show that 600 houses, comprising 60 percent for refugees and 40 percent for locals, were constructed.
Former East Timor refugee Martino Ponis, 39, who lived in a refugee camp in Jenilu village, Kakuluk Mesak district, Belu, said that refugees came to the area in early 1999, a few months before the referendum in September 1999.
On September 20, 2000, Kompas reported that the number of East Timor refugees in West Timor reached a peak in October 1999, at 284,000 refugees – almost half the total population of East Timor.
The presence of these refugees surely added to the local social, economic and security burden – especially those who lived in poverty in East Nusa Tenggara.
A number of clashes between refugees and locals occurred in a number of regions in late 2000. The accumulation of various hardships and burdens frustrated the refugees.
This condition reached a peak when the refugees attacked the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Atambua. During the incident, the cause of which remains unclear, three UNHCR staff members were killed.
Quoting a report by Nani IR Nurrachman from Atma Jaya University titled Trauma Sosial dalam Sejarah Nasional (Social Trauma in National History) and published in Jurnal Komnas HAM 2016, victims of violence from any side and social status are people with deep personal feelings who suffer from these acts of violence.
Related to this, a new language is needed to reformulate our past as a nation. This opportunity can open the door to reconciliation in the sense of “…an act to move on from the past without denying past crimes … to demand justice without resorting to acts of vengeance.”
(ANTONY LEE/MADINA NUSRAT/A PONCO ANGGORO/RINI KUSTIASIH)
