Galang Island sticking his name approximately 18 years ago, not only in Indonesia but also internationally, because the soil is still approximately 3.5 menghutan, by the UNHCR (United Nation High Commission for Refugees,) with the approval of the central government, built temporary refugee resettlement centerVietnamese who left his country because of war-stricken.Vietnamese refugees at that time was known as "boat people".According to the officers who remained in the neighborhood, the Vietnamese people who came out of his home that sailed around the South China Sea and into Indonesian waters by using an old boat that leaks of various sizes. On each boat there are berpenumpang approximately 40-100 people, or strand themselves stranded around the coast of Tanjung Uban, Natuna Island, Galang Island and around the other small islands that are uninhabited. At that time they found and rescued by the Indonesian Navy and local fishermen.
It happened mid-1970s after the end of the Vietnam war which turned out to confront the international community on the serious problem of refugees. The main trigger was the collapse of South Vietnam into the hands of North Vietnamese or Vietcong power, in addition to kaostis situation in Cambodia.
These events are then raised concerns many people in southern Vietnam and encourage them to leave his hometown to search for new protection. Thus, many reasons the refugees had left their homeland, men, women, young and old, and children to save themselves. They are using a leaky old boat, the sail into the open sea without a clear purpose, and arrived in Indonesian waters.Later they become a problem involving many countries and international attention.
Indonesia at that time was the only country in Southeast Asia that provides responses that appear on urgent international problems that. And help the refugees to enter, and agree Galang Island, located approximately 50 km south of the island of Batam and only approximately half an hour from Singapore by ferry, was selected as a transit Vietnamese refugees. While waiting they are administratively processed for delivery to a third country.
In the allotment of residential areas on Galang Island, the UNHCR to build settlements are equipped with various facilities and fully equipped and very adequate infrastructure, like roads organized and very good quality that connects with a small port that is used as the traffic supply the needs of the refugees were living. This place is known as the Port Karyapura. There were seafood restaurant operated by the refugees, conference hall, school, church, the entrance by land and building for local officials exercise facilities. In the settlement, also built housing for local employees of the UNHCR, pagodas, rest area, camping ground, "Galang Memorial Hall." There are approximately 500 people died in the Vietnamese village that, because it was old and sick. They were buried in a cemetery area regularly and well maintained.
Refugee housing and other building facilities that now seem largely neglected, except for Buddhist shrine (pagoda), utilized and maintained in Chinese Buddhist people of Riau. Existing building that is now being renovated and used as one of the leading tourist area of local governments in Batam. A place that is ideal for outdoor education area for children and youth, a sort of campground Cibubur in Jakarta. Besides the interesting places visited, both local and foreign tourists to see and admire the values contained behind the construction of these settlements. Also while doing self-reflection, what lessons can be learned from that event for the future of human life.
Uphold human values
"Vietnam Village" on Galang Island which was inhabited since the year 1979-1996 approximately 250,000 people boat people who gathered from various places around the Riau Islands. Previously they lived with local residents in exchange for the goods they carry.In general, they provide benefits in the form of gold. And the impression of residents who had contact with the refugees, among them seems to many people who are classified. On the initiative of the government and the UNHCR, they deliberately concentrated on a place of settlement which closed its interaction with local residents to facilitate supervision, regulation and safety. In addition, the government worried about the terrible outbreak of venereal disease that was caught in between them, called Vietnam Rose, before anyone knew the HIV virus are more terrifying.
Now, the settlement of Vietnamese refugees that has become an open area to visit the community for having abandoned the refugees.
Over the past 18 years, with impressive support from the international community, UNHCR / UN agency that deals with refugee issues and the Indonesian government, represented by the Navy at that time, Vietnamese refugees who are protected on Galang Island has been successfully repatriated. Approximately 5,000 refugees returned to his hometown and the other left Galang Island to his new homeland, spread in third countries, of which there is a way to Australia and the United States. Vietnam Village is cool and beautiful and far from the crowds, for they are only a distant memory that would be difficult for them to forget. Where UNHCR and the Indonesian government declared that the settlement area of Vietnam itu into conservation areas as "open museum" for protected public existence as proof to the world that Indonesia has a high commitment in upholding human values that are important in the history of modern civilization in Southeast Asia.
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