social violence in aceh

You can feel the difference between a peaceful society and a post-conflict one... there is no such thing as social peace and order here... and for once, let's get out of Banda Aceh to get a real sense of what's going on here.. I don't know if some of you remember pictures and stories from Lhokseumawe, a town six hours from Banda where we have a field office... I was down there to conduct field surveys...

Well, my collegue is currently down there to close our office there.. Our programs are finished. Late last night, a group of twenty men from the "village" (actually just a bunch of violent idiots who probably came from all over town) showed up at the office where the moving truck was and started threatening our staff. They wanted to be hired to "move" us (meaning filling in the truck) for 1 million 500 thousand rupiah. We already had someone doing it for 500 thousand. They became violent and angry when our staff told them that off course they would not pay three times the price. This morning, they came back, and stopped all activities in the office. They went up towards our drivers and other staff carrying things and threatened to beat them up if they did not stop immediately. Our staff closed the gates and locked themselves in the office and called the police... The "police" came, meaning two officers who started negotiating the amount instead of immediately telling the people to leave. This group of men have NO rights whatsoever... But they are putting pressure on other people and getting what they want from it.. In the end, one of our staffs agreed to give 200 thousand rupiah more and therefore paying them 700 thousand roupiahs. It was accepted, and that group carried the office furniture into the truck, not forgetting to steal several things on the way.

It's scary how groups of people can have such a power on others.. The threats are still very much taken seriously, probably as much as during conflict times. Of all people present, even the police, nobody reminded these people they had no business being in our office and that they had no revendications to bring.

The wounds of a post-conflict society are hard to heal. And actually, after the blissful immediate post-peace agreement period, I'm scared Aceh is getting back on the wrong tracks.. Only time will set that record straight.

Let's end on a much more positive note: here are some of my GTZ colleagues!

Intant, Nanda and Hani

Matthias, far right, Hani, center, and another Matthias behind the camera...

Field trip to Lhokseumawe

Me revoila revenue a Banda Aceh apres trois semaines a Lhokseumawe (bon je l'avoue.. je rentrais les week end..) pour superviser une etude d'impact de deux de nos projets "Back to Business". C'etait au final tres chouette de decouvrir une autre ville et aussi d'aller a la rencontre de nos beneficiaires dans les villages... Lhokseumawe se trouve a cinq heures de Banda Aceh, et a souffert differemment (peu de Tsunami, mais enormement de problemes lies au conflit arme, encore maintenant...)
Voici donc des photos, de notre equipe d'interviewers aux gens dans les villages.... que du bonheur!

In the villages



Interviewing our beneficiaries...







During the training I conducted on team building and how to do a survey... The "Back to Business" Survey team!

Anecdote: La Rage au Ministere

Discussion rapportee par ma collegue, lors d'une discussion avec un de nos partenaires sur notre nouveau projet en Aceh, le partenaire etant le Ministere de l'Elevage/Betail. Apres avoir parle du contenu du projet dont une des activites est la relance de l'elevage telle qu'elle etait pratiquee avant le tsunami dans les trois villages cibles, le responsable du ministere au niveau de la province d'Aceh intervient sur la vaccination:

"Anne So: Oui bien sur, nous prevoyons de faire une campagne de vaccination en coordination et cooperation avec le ministere.
Le Fonctionnaire: Tres bien! Nous sommes tres motives! La population de ces 3 villages ont ete durement touches et peu aides. Et puis ils sont tres isoles sur cette petite ile.
- Oui. On compte sur vous, c'est chouette, blablabla...
- Et il y a beaucoup de chiens sur cette ile?
- euh oui, enfin non, oui...
- Si vous voulez, le Ministere peut organiser et gerer une campagne contre la rage, pour limiter les risques.
- ah bah oui pourquoi pas.
- Nous pouvons organiser une battue et tuer tous les chiens de la zone.
- ...
- ...
- Euh pfff oui enfin non, quand meme, je sais pas... Mais il y a la rage sur cette zone?
- Non.
- ..."

Article sur le soutien psychologique en milieu humanitaire

Article super interessant sur la gestion du stress chez les humanitaires... autant dire que sur le terrain on croise le chemin d'etres casses par leurs experiences et qui ont souvent besoin de trouver une "addiction" afin de gerer tout ca... alcolisme, tabagisme excessif, incapacite de parler d'autre chose...Bref, cet article explique de maniere interessante ce probleme...

http://www.resonanceshumanitaires.org/media/questionsdefemmes2.htm

Humanitaires : la générosité a-t-elle un prix?

Ils ont vécu des situations de stress intenses. Perçus comme des héros, ils se sont sentis utiles, mais à leur retour de missions, les humanitaires sont souvent déboussolés. Le soutien psychologique leur fait parfois cruellement défaut.

Article paru dans Questions de femmes - Juillet 2007
Gonzague RAMBAUD

Birmanie : l'incohérence totale de la France

Montreuil, le 30 octobre 2007
www.lesamisdelaterre.org

Birmanie : l'incohérence totale de la France

Alors que Bernard Kouchner, Ministre des Affaires étrangères, vient de prendre ouvertement la défense de Total lors d'une conférence de presse à Bangkok (1), les Amis de la Terre condamnent fermement ce soutien et appellent de nouveau le gouvernement français à prendre rapidement ses responsabilités en dénonçant sans ambiguïté la présence du groupe en Birmanie.

Si l'Union européenne a fait un grand pas en avant le 15 octobre dernier en renforçant les sanctions économiques contre la junte birmane, y incluant notamment le bois, et validant ainsi l'utilité des pressions commerciales, Bernard Kouchner, quant à lui, semble prendre la direction inverse. De façon complètement incohérente, il a exprimé ce matin à Bangkok son soutien explicite au groupe Total, affirmant à tort que son départ nuirait aux populations birmanes et thaïlandaises.

Gwenael Wasse, chargé de la Responsabilité sociale et environnementale des entreprises aux Amis de la Terre, est choqué : « On pensait le temps du soutien à Total enfin révolu et la rupture consommée, mais on a maintenant la confirmation qu'il n'en est rien : la France soutient toujours aveuglément sa première entreprise, privilégiant ses bénéfices par rapport aux droits de l'Homme tout en instrumentalisant les populations locales et des pays voisins ». Il ajoute : « Si Bernard Kouchner est ouvertement favorable à des sanctions dures contre l'Iran, sa position est beaucoup plus incohérente sur la Birmanie. Dans son discours de clotûre du Grenelle de l'Environnement, Nicolas Sarkozy déclarait pourtant que la responsabilité française était de donner l'exemple...».

Les Amis de la Terre rappellent qu'à côté des 14 millions de dollars dépensés par Total depuis 1998 pour son programme socio-économique en Birmanie (2), le groupe verse aussi 500 millions de dollars chaque année dans le cadre de son contrat pétrolier avec la junte pour l'exploitation du gisement gazier de Yadana. Cette somme finance directement la corruption et les gravissimes violations des droits de l'Homme dont souffrent au quotidien plus de 50 millions de birmans. Le 10 octobre dernier, l'opposition démocratique birmane en exil, reçue quelques jours plus tôt par Nicolas Sarkozy, a pourtant condamné fermement la présence du groupe sur place, demandant que « soient gelées ou abandonnées toutes les activités liées au gaz ». Gwenael Wasse conclut : « Apparemment, les intérêts de Total comptent plus que celle des démocrates birmans ; espérons que la France corrigera très vite ce faux pas diplomatique ».

(1) Bernard Kouchner défend la présence de Total en Birmanie, Le Monde, 30/10/2007
(2) source Total (cf. http://birmanie.total.com/fr/contexte/p_1_5.htm)

Stories from Lhokseumawe: The story of a normal young woman in Aceh

My acehnese colleague had just come into my office to talk to me. She has been sick for the last few days, and not coming to my hotel the last two nights as planned (we wanted to watch a movie). She and I are about the same age, and she is a bright and funny young woman.
But her life is not so funny at all.
She had a boyfriend and they were very much in love. So in love that they didn’t want to wait for their wedding (scheduled for a week after the tsunami) before making love. She fell pregnant a few weeks before, but they weren’t worried a bit as nobody would know the child was conceived before the wedding. Her boyfriend died in the Tsunami. She told me she even found his body and all his family also. She spent twenty minutes describing how she walked through the devastated city of Banda Aceh the day after to find him, and also to look for her cousin and his family, that she never found. The details of all of that made me sick to my stomach, and I won’t get into details, as we can all imagine the horrible effect of the aftermath of the tsunami.
On top of her loss, she was left in a totally unacceptable situation for a woman here. Pregnant without being married. After the tsunami, she found a job in Meulaboh (eight hours from Banda Aceh) and she met a tsunami widow who was also working with Ngos. She liked him a lot, and decided she could be happy living her life with him. So they got married, and when the baby was born a few months later, her honor was safe. She was married, and she had a family. Her husband had two children from his previous marriage, but they live in Medan (it is very common here to meet families that have one or two children living in a different city with relatives, often for school or financial reasons).
My friend got pregnant again a few months ago, but lost her baby. It died in her womb. She had to go through the horrible and very painful process of having it “pulled out” in Banda Aceh (where you can imagine the conditions of such an intervention).

A few minutes ago she was in front of me and she just started talking. I could see she was holding back her tears. Her husband has been beating her. She described how he broke one of her ribs a few months ago and another time bruised her face so badly that she was all blue. He also steels her salary from her. She makes a very good income for a woman in Aceh, and twice what her husband makes. He takes all her money and buys things for his children in Medan. My friend needed a washing machine as she did not have the time to hand wash all their clothes after work. He took the money saying he would go buy it and came back with new tires for his motorbike. My friend had also managed to secretly put aside a bit of her salary each month (for future needs and for her child), but he found the bank booklet, and got all the money out and bought a ridiculously big motorbike. Because he is her husband, he had no difficulty at the bank to access her account (she opened it with her name).
Finally, I am staying in a big hotel room all by myself and had asked her if she wanted to come and spend a few nights with me. There are two beds and a TV and she had told me she missed watching TV. Anyways, the night before yesterday she told me she couldn’t because she had to go to the market with the owner of the room she rents here (her husband is in BA. She travels every week down here and goes home on the week ends). Yesterday she called saying she wasn’t coming because she was sick. She admitted to me today that she had lied, because her husband had forbidden her to come. I told her “why do you even ask him?” She said he regularly called the owner of the house she lives in to check if she’s in her room. Why would he not want her to come sleep with a female colleague? “He doesn’t trust me she said”.
She has threatened to divorce him, and he has stopped hitting her, but has transformed his physical abuse into a verbal one. He is always degrading her and insulting her. At least there can be no proof.

Fortunately, her family stands by her. Her parents don’t like him and her dad has even gotten into a fight with him. Both her mother and father (they are divorced) have said they would take care of her and her child and support her. She is lucky in the sense that if she finds the strength to leave him she has a safe place to go to, and love to receive from her family. I doubt this is the case for most of the other women here in Aceh who are in the same situation.

It was heartbreaking to listen to her and I tried to advise her the best I could. Being myself a happy newlywed, I felt very distraught thinking of women for whom marriage is a prison. I tend to forget that marriage is in most places of this world linked to men controlling and owning their wives, feeling they have the right to use and abuse them the way they want. Of course, here in Aceh, I have positive marriages examples around me. But everybody plays their “role” so well in the eyes of society that it’s difficult to really see what’s going on. I told her next time she was hit she should go to the police. She said that really wouldn’t change anything… I hope she finds the strength to get out of that marriage. For now she is too scared, but I told her thinking about all these things and recognizing that he was wrong to treat her so, is already a first step to freedom.

CRAZY BUT TRUE!

WE ARE MARRIED!

For more beautiful pictures of D-Day, go to:

http://emilyandabel.blogspot.com/

Sacrifice in Lac Toba

Here are photos of where human sacrifices took place in Danau Toba... Quite scary... We had an old lady explaining us how they first cut your cheek off and then brake all your bones before cutting your head off... Argh.... The King and Queen were present of course as they were the ones who would then have the privilege of eating the feast with other important chiefs ....Apparently they sacrificed the worst warrier (poor guy!)

We were terrorized: felt obligated to buy stuff off them so they wouldn't eat US!
:)

The "Stone Chairs' where it all took place:

The stones on which the sacrifice was laid:


The King and the Queen...

DANAU TOBA

...ou aussi Lac Toba. Merveilleuse enclave chrétienne/protestante dans Sumatra... Le peuple Batak est connu pour son passé cannibale mais aussi sa merveilleuse architecture, son hospitalité et la beauté des gens... bref, tout un programme. Nous y avons passé le week end de la fête d'Indépendance (pas idéal pour voyager mais bon)... Personnellement, une grande familiarité avec cet endroit qui me faisait penser à Annecy!

Enjoy

Retour à la civilisation...

Le week end dernier, petite escapade au Lac Toba.. Sur la route, arrêt obligé par Medan, troisième ville Indonésienne... une jungle urbaine irrespirable.. mais où l'on trouve des sushis à gogo et des jeux vidéos.... la complexité même par rapport à Banda Aceh... On s'y est laissé prendre.. avec notre ami Bastien et notre coloc Adèle. .

Apéritif sur la plage

... Ce qui est totalement illégal bien sur, mais tellement agréabbbbllllllllleeeeeee.....

How I lost my future husband for 2 weeks

There are Tigers here...

Local Newspaper:
"Aceh Selatan - The viciousness of tigers in the mountain of Meukek Sub-district, Aceh Selatan seems no indication to slow down. Within the last two months, there are three people had been deadly attacked by those tigers. The latest incident occurred to Amiruddin (50), a villager of Buket Meuh on Tue (14/8). Amiruddin was founded dead on Wed (15/8) afternoon. Villagers believe that he was attacked by the tiger in that area. His body was founded by a man who passed his nutmeg farm in Panton Kuba Mountain. This man saw blood scattered about near the scene and then he went down the mountain and reported it to locals. Residents then went to the scene and found the body of Amiruddin incompletely. His head and thigh were gone."

un week end entre amis dans un petit coin de Paradis...

L'île s'appelle Pulau Weh, plus connu sous le nom de Sabang (le nom de la "ville")... C 'est endroit c'est Ibuoih, petit hameau de bungalows pour backpackers et expats humanitaires... ici, les filles peuvent se mettre en maillot et on boit de la bière en regardant le soleil couchant.. un grand bol d'air frais lorsque Banda Aceh devient étouffant...

Merci à Sébastian pour les photos!

Petits princes Acehnais....

Trip to Lhokseumawe... continuation and end

school children in their uniforms... (red and white, I wonder why... )


Villagers looking on...


Bananas season...

Traditional Dancing in Aceh

Also seen during my trip to Lhokseumawe... enjoy





And proud mothers looking on...