Indonesian Gold (69 page)

‘The Kopassus helicopter remains assigned under my
orders.'

‘What if we have injuries and require a medical
evacuation?'
she had argued.

‘
Then, if that situation arises, we'll get a chopper to
you. Failing that, a fast boat.
'

‘That's not good enough, Colonel!'

‘We are repositioning our forces,'
the officer explained, his patience running thin.
‘Security
considerations must take priority!'

‘
Who will guard the camp?'

‘I'll leave enough men to see to that.
'

Sharon
was tempted to remind
the
Kostrad
officer that the bodies lying at their feet had been guarding the site, and
look what had happened to them. Wisely, she resisted.
‘Then you don't agree that this would be
an appropriate time for the expatriates to leave?'
she persisted, but the commander was
adamant.

‘We have our orders,'
he repeated, annoyed at being challenged by a woman in front of his men,
‘and these
require that all of the company's employees remain here on site. It is far too dangerous to
travel by longboat. We could not guarantee your safety.'

‘Then I need to use the radiophone,'
Sharon
insisted. The commander looked at her
suspiciously.
‘There's a total blackout on all military movements. Who do you wish to
call?'
Sharon's mind raced.
‘My boss overseas, he's expecting my call and if I don't make
it, he'll get worried.'

Pressed with far more important matters to resolve, the
commander briefly considered her request, and agreed. He summoned an NCO with a wave, and
instructed the soldier to accompany Sharon.
‘Keep it brief,'
he warned,
‘and remember
that all communications are being monitored.'

Sharon
then went directly to
the operation's office where the radiophone was located, the NCO clearing her access with the
guard. She contacted Jakarta and was connected to Vancouver, advising Kremenchug that her
departure had been delayed, her enigmatic message dashing her partner's hopes for an early
resolution to outstanding monetary concerns. And then, as requested, he dialed the number Sharon
had given, and informed Alfredo of her delay.

****

Longdamai
Village
Survivors

‘How are you feeling?'
Angela sat huddled with Campbell. He had been sleeping on a forest carpet of leaves and
now ached all over.

‘I'll make it,'
he
replied, listlessly.

‘You've been asleep, for hours.'

‘I should get back to the camp.'
His voiced lacked conviction. He could see the chief's leg being packed with
what looked like banana leaves wrapped in a makeshift bandage.
‘What happened to your
father?'

‘Shot in the thigh,'
she answered, looking across the dim clearing to where Jonathan Dau's wound was being
attended.
‘It's not serious.'

‘Why did the army attack?'
The two women charged with his safety had remained with Campbell when he could progress
no further, Angela and Jonathan catching up with the stragglers, less than a kilometer from the
Longhouse. Campbell's abdominal pains had lessened in intensity as he'd hauled his weary body to
this place – his mouth now dry with thirst, and the nausea remained. It was not until Angela had
caught up that he learned who was responsible for the raid, Campbell staggered when the chief
suggested
Kopassus. ‘Will they follow us up here?'

They had fled into the forest, reaching this temporary
sanctuary after the most grueling trek, Campbell unable to keep pace with the main body of four
hundred survivors, most of whom were women and children. Less than thirty
Penehing
men had
managed to escape, none without serious injury, some now lying quietly with empty looks on their
faces – others, oblivious to their final tide, with life gradually ebbing away.

‘I don't know,'
she
replied, truthfully, wondering if the attack on her village could have been a pre-emptive strike
– that, somehow, the military had learned of the Dayak plan to raze the migrant settlements, and
acted accordingly.

‘How long will the villagers remain here?'
he asked. Light filtering through the canopy cast the meanest of glows
across the clearing where the injured and wounded lay, beyond which, the movement of hundreds of
villagers as they foraged for food, went virtually unseen.

‘For as long as it takes.'
Angela straightened her shoulders, back erect and chin high. There was a suggestion of
arrogance in her demeanor.

Campbell
detected the pride in
her voice and asked,
‘Do you want me to stay?'

Angela cast him a fractious glance, then shook her head.
‘No. There's nothing you can do here. As soon as the rest of the village men return, you
should go.'

Campbell
looked at her
quizzically.
‘Return? Where did they go?'

Angela's eyes dropped to the forest floor.
‘There's no
point in keeping it from you, Stewart. You'd learn the truth, anyway, the moment you set foot
back in the mining camp.'

‘The truth about what?'
he asked, curiosity aroused.

She sighed heavily.
‘The young men, the warriors – they
went down-river to disrupt the transmigrant settlement.'

This response took some moments for him to digest,
Campbell's reaction predictable.
‘Disrupt?'
He rolled slightly, and propped on an elbow.
‘What in the hell does that mean, disrupt?'

‘I knew you wouldn't understand.
'
‘They went on a raid?'
this, with wild astonishment
.
‘Yes.
'
He was stunned by her candor.
‘And…and, you had foreknowledge

of this?'

‘Yes.'
Angela's face
was devoid of expression.

‘Which settlement?'
he
demanded, with growing alarm.

‘Those downriver from the mining camp.'

An ominous, black cloud suddenly stretched itself along
his horizon – Campbell tried to dislodge this by shaking his head.
‘Those? They went to attack
more than one?
'

‘
They're not alone
.'

‘What?'
He stared in
disbelief.

‘I said they're not alone. The Penehing have joined with
other Dayak communities, Stewart. They're not alone.'

Campbell
's jaw dropped
measurably, struck speechless by the magnitude of what she'd said.
‘A general
uprising?'

‘
In three provinces.
'

‘Which ones?'
he found
himself asking – the enormity of her revelations still too difficult to comprehend.

‘
Central, Southern and Eastern
Kalimantan.
'

‘But… why?'
Campbell
now spoke with difficulty, his throat parched with
thirst.

‘
I guess they all decided, that they'd finally had
enough.
'

‘
And… this all started when?
'

‘
Earlier today.
'

‘And you've known about all of this, since
when?'

Angela's face masked her true feelings.
‘Before you
came to Longdamai.'

‘You've known for that long?'
His voice all but cracked.

Angela cast a desperate glance across the clearing for
support, back to Campbell, then nodded solemnly.

With this affirmation Campbell climbed unsteadily to his
feet as blood drained from his face, returning instantly with a rush as he exploded into English
with, ‘I don't fucking believe it! Are you telling me that you knew all along that there was
going to be a goddamn raid, and did nothing to prevent it?'

‘Sit down, Stewart!'
a
voice cautioned from across the clearing,
‘None of this is Angela's doing!'

‘What are you talking about?'
Campbell
retorted with equal spirit, not registering that
the chief had overheard
and
understood, every word.

‘
I asked Angela to bring you here. Yes, she knew of our
plans, but she has nothing to do with any of it. The truth is, she spoke against the
action.
'

‘
Then why am I here?
'

‘Because, initially, the mining camp was a
target.'

Again, Campbell exploded into English. ‘Jesus, fucking
Christ!' He glared at Angela. ‘You were going to trash my operations, destroy the equipment, kill
the people there? What happened?'

‘The army arrived. The mining site was removed from the
list,'
this, with a disturbingly, serene calm.

‘And if they hadn't?'

‘
I would still have found a way to get you away from
the site.
'

‘And I'm supposed to thank you for nearly getting me
killed?'
Campbell
shook his head in
disgust.
‘And what about the others?'

Angela had steeled herself for this question.
‘They
weren't to be hurt.'

‘How could you possibly have guaranteed
that?'
his voice rose harshly, fueled with anger.
‘You're all
insane! What could you have possibly gained from attacking a foreign mining
operation?'

‘You mean the one that's destroyed a highly treasured,
Penehing ancestral spiritual site?'
Angela retorted with
venom.

‘
My God, I don't know who you are anymore. This is
madness, Angela!
'

‘No, it's war.'
Jonathan Dau again intervened.

‘But why?'
Confused,
and weakened by his condition, Campbell's head started to swim.
‘Why start a war… you can't
win?'

‘
Because what happened to our village today, is but a
precursor for what will happen to all Dayak communities.
'

‘You can't be certain of that.'
Campbell's eyes clashed with Jonathan's.

‘Look around you, Stewart. In just a few hours my people
have been reduced to hiding in the forests, their homes destroyed, many within their families
killed. This deliberate slaughter could in no way be retaliatory for what we had planned. It can
only be coincidental that they chose to attack at this time. If you can consider this, then you
must draw the conclusion that the army already had orders to wage war against us, the reasons
obvious. We have become refugees in our own land. We have nothing to apologize for. I only wish
we'd acted sooner.'

Campbell
inhaled deeply as he
gathered his thoughts. Then, with the gesture of a disappointed teacher addressing a recalcitrant
child, slowly shook his head.
‘Surely you can't expect to win? Jakarta has enormous military
resources.'
He paused for breath, more than affect.
‘And, my bet is that they'll throw
everything they've got at you!'

‘
We accept this… and understand the price we must
pay.
'

‘It's sheer madness.'
Lost for words and physically incapable of further debate, Campbell could only shake his
head at the insanity of it all. Jonathan Dau rose unsteadily, and Campbell could see that the
chief's wound had been covered with strips torn from some woman's
sarong,
the temporary
bandage high on his leg like some ridiculous garter.

‘
What if I told you that Kostrad army elements have
been training militia units in all the settlements, for months? This activity was not confined to
Javanese migrants, but Madurese as well. If Jakarta does not have a secret agenda, why would they
be training such militia groups?
'

‘Perhaps to protect the migrants from
raids?'
Campbell
threw back,
sarcastically, and in the process lost his balance when his head began to spin, and he slumped to
the ground. ‘W
hat can you hope to achieve by wreaking such havoc?'

The
Penehing
chief sat down again with his wounded
leg extended, an arm over one knee as he eyed the American closely.
‘The Dayak people want
control over their economic resources and that includes timber, mineral resources and oil. We
want the central government to cease its transmigration policy if for no other reason, than to
prevent the further diluting of our ethnic purity. Our lands must be returned to us and with
adequate compensation. Should these conditions be met, then the indigenous peoples of Kalimantan
would be receptive to remaining within the Indonesian Republic.'