Refugee Review Tribunal Report on the Aftermath of Aceh Tsunami Situation
On 17 January 2005, the Fellowship of Indonesian Christians in America (FICA) published an interview with Christine Susanna Tjhin, a Chinese Indonesian who worked with an INTI relief team in Medan which was tasked with investigating “the validity of rumors of persecutions towards Indonesian Chinese minority”.
What kind of activities do you do in Medan? We heard Medan was made the center of relief effort coordination.
I also help to disseminate information that we gathered from the disaster area. For example, the information about refugee count, how many had returned to Aceh, what their physical needs are, etc. Additionally, we also investigated the validity of rumors of persecutions towards Indonesian Chinese minority. We talked and gleaned information from the first hand sources. It turned out that these were just unsubstantiated issues. So, we wrote articles to deflect these rumors. In short, our jobs were more towards relief effort coordination and dissemination of information.
So, in your opinion historically there was no discriminative treatment in Aceh?
I don’t know a lot about Aceh history as well as the Indonesian-Chinese community there. Certainly we cannot deny that discrimination exist everywhere across the nation. However, these irresponsible rumors claimed that there was an organized and collective persecution in Aceh against the Indonesian Chinese. This was simply untrue. We are in a disaster situation where hundreds of thousand lives need help and those rumors could cause communities to stop sending their relief aids.
…How is Acehnese’ response to foreigners there?
Acehnese are so grateful for the help they received and they are receptive to people helping them. But since Aceh was a closed region prior to the disaster, they were not used to meeting people from out of Aceh (including Javanese). But in the midst of this disaster, they are open and appreciative. Actually those who make issues out of this are those who had not felt the pain these Acehnese were going through.
For example, at Posko (coordination post) Jalan Metal, we came from different backgrounds. One day, this Posko was too full to provide treatment to these Acehnese refugees. So these people were asked if they mind staying at a local Buddhist temple. The refugees understood the shortage of place to accommodate them and did not mind at all to be placed in the temple.
But then the Pemda Medan from the religious affairs callously protested, “What is this? Quickly get these Acehnese out from the temple!” So, that’s how ridiculous it is. This became a center issue for some audiences such as IAIN (Institut Agama Islam Negeri) in Medan. These Muslim students issued ultimatum to break into places that they suspect providing accommodation for these Acehnese refugees, like this temple.
So, while the Acehnese were grateful of all the help they could receive, certain parties or groups (who do not feel Acehnese’ pains) are more interested to exercise their suspicious thoughts at the cost of hindering the relief effort for these Acehnese.
…For example, recently my contacts in Banda Aceh found provocative pamphlets from PKS (Partai Keadilan Sosial or Social Justice Party, a sizable and well known Muslim political party) at the airport, saying: “Do not give Aceh childs to infidels (kafir), Christians, and missionaries!” How provocative! We relay this information to some of my Muslim friends in Komunitas Lintas Iman or Interfaith Community.
They, in turn, relay this information for confirmation to PKS headquarters. PKS denied responsibility for these pamphlets. This is a very potent threat if these pamphlets fell into the hands of people who do not subscribe to pluralism.
Tjhin, who is a researcher for the Jakarta based Center for Strategic Studies (CSIS), told FICA that “information from the first hand sources” revealed “that these were just unsubstantiated issues”. Though Tjhin did not herself travel beyond Medan and into Aceh itself, she felt informed enough to advise FICA that the rumour of “an organized and collective persecution in Aceh against the Indonesian Chinese” “was simply untrue”. According to Tjhin, the most significant incidents of xenophobic and/or sectarian agitation that she did learn of were the work of outside Javanese Islamist organisations, and not of the local Acehnese. Some relevant extracts follow in detail:
What kind of activities do you do in Medan? We heard Medan was made the center of relief effort coordination.
I also help to disseminate information that we gathered from the disaster area. For example, the information about refugee count, how many had returned to Aceh, what their physical needs are, etc. Additionally, we also investigated the validity of rumors of persecutions towards Indonesian Chinese minority. We talked and gleaned information from the first hand sources. It turned out that these were just unsubstantiated issues. So, we wrote articles to deflect these rumors. In short, our jobs were more towards relief effort coordination and dissemination of information.
So, in your opinion historically there was no discriminative treatment in Aceh?
I don’t know a lot about Aceh history as well as the Indonesian-Chinese community there. Certainly we cannot deny that discrimination exist everywhere across the nation. However, these irresponsible rumors claimed that there was an organized and collective persecution in Aceh against the Indonesian Chinese. This was simply untrue. We are in a disaster situation where hundreds of thousand lives need help and those rumors could cause communities to stop sending their relief aids.
…How is Acehnese’ response to foreigners there?
Acehnese are so grateful for the help they received and they are receptive to people helping them. But since Aceh was a closed region prior to the disaster, they were not used to meeting people from out of Aceh (including Javanese). But in the midst of this disaster, they are open and appreciative. Actually those who make issues out of this are those who had not felt the pain these Acehnese were going through.
For example, at Posko (coordination post) Jalan Metal, we came from different backgrounds. One day, this Posko was too full to provide treatment to these Acehnese refugees. So these people were asked if they mind staying at a local Buddhist temple. The refugees understood the shortage of place to accommodate them and did not mind at all to be placed in the temple.
But then the Pemda Medan from the religious affairs callously protested, “What is this? Quickly get these Acehnese out from the temple!” So, that’s how ridiculous it is. This became a center issue for some audiences such as IAIN (Institut Agama Islam Negeri) in Medan. These Muslim students issued ultimatum to break into places that they suspect providing accommodation for these Acehnese refugees, like this temple.
So, while the Acehnese were grateful of all the help they could receive, certain parties or groups (who do not feel Acehnese’ pains) are more interested to exercise their suspicious thoughts at the cost of hindering the relief effort for these Acehnese.
…For example, recently my contacts in Banda Aceh found provocative pamphlets from PKS (Partai Keadilan Sosial or Social Justice Party, a sizable and well known Muslim political party) at the airport, saying: “Do not give Aceh childs to infidels (kafir), Christians, and missionaries!” How provocative! We relay this information to some of my Muslim friends in Komunitas Lintas Iman or Interfaith Community.
They, in turn, relay this information for confirmation to PKS headquarters. PKS denied responsibility for these pamphlets. This is a very potent threat if these pamphlets fell into the hands of people who do not subscribe to pluralism.
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