CHAPTER 4
BLOOD
PAYMENT”
In May 3rd,
1998, there happened the murder of three
wives of the warlord of Buetkuar7) village. The first wife, 48 years old and
was found dead with scars of chopping on the left chest and on the right knee.
That woman died because of bleeding. The second wife, who was 38 years old, was
reaped on the right and left part of the stomach, on the up-left chest, on the
above of the left part of the forehead and on the neck. That woman was laid down
stiffly and was dead. The third wife, who was only 18, was found scattered
losing breath. The bleeding on the left and right breasts, caused by a chopping
axe, killed her.
A child of a
victim, who was 5, was the eyewitness of the murder. When the mother was
slaughtered, the child watched the cruelness from a hid much fearfully. After a
few while, when the warlord husband came to see his wives, the child answered,
“Yowero8) had killed mama”, Buetkuar was shocked.
Yowero (17 years
old), the murderer, was hiding in the forest and then went to the police base
of Agats to get shelter. He felt being in danger because Buetkuar people
intended kill him for the sake of “blood payment” for the death of the three
wives of the warlord.
When the police
asked him a question to know the truth, that he was the murder, that young man
denied. Yowero, then was secured in the Agats district police department for
further. He did not want to claim the murder, and even accused the husband of
the three wives murder. Until, he finally dealt with a Sergeant-Major officer
who had experienced working for twenty years in Asmat, and who quite understood
the local tradition. He had no chance to deny.
Yowero had bread a
profound grudge to the warlord, because Yowero thought that the warlord had
killed his father using suanggi
–black magic—replacing his father’s position as the warlord. It means that the
man deserved to marry the widow of the former warlord and, practically, meant
that the man was Yowero’s step father. It was hurting Yowero so much, he did
not want to be the man’s, who had killed Yowero’s, step son. Meanwhile, Yowero
still believed that without “blood payment”, his real father’s spirit would not
be released in dampu ow capinmi –
where the dead temporarily stay before going into safar –heaven.
Yowero intended to
challenge the latest warlord to fight, but he did not have enough courage. The
warlord’s was physically great. He, as the opposite, was only a little skinny
young man and he would, of course, get beaten down, feel nothing then if his
step father gave him a hit. Yowero kept thinking, so that he decided to take
revenge by killing the three wives of the warlord, one by one. Those women
would difficulty defence their selves.
Yowero followed
them into the woods, while their husband still traced into the deeper side of
the woods to find gaharu. By a fine step, Yowero went nearer bevak9). He acted like he was to borrow
the axe to fix Johnson machine from one of those wives. Few seconds later, the
revenge took the control. The axe was swung, a victim went down. Yowero, after
then, seek the other two women, who did never realize their times had come. The
woman went down, one by one, in a minute.
Women became the
target of violence, because of their natural anatomy unequipped with strong
muscles to use in a fight. Except, the woman practice martial art continually
and systematically for defence. Asmat women have the opportunity, the
opportunity to be a victim of revenge and the blood-for-blood tradition of an
Asmat kid which was a grown-up to-be. The husband, which was supposed to be the
target, was kept away from death because of the great muscles he had. However,
the three women were to take the blame.
The murderer was
raised in a culture which place women in a position of men’s power actional
object. They seem to be in a living things functioning as passive participants
in all of men’s actions, without authority to act. Yowero did not take revenge
directly to the husband because he understood that he was not qualified for it.
The posture of the warlord was tall and big, Yowero, who was skinny thin did
not equal to the man but “blood payment” should go on. Yowero did put the
grudge to the possible party who could not fight back, the women. In the case
of Yowero’s parents’ death, those women had taken no part. They were only the
wives of a husband who had likely committed a murder using suanggi. Their marriages were not some mistakes that should take a
murder. However, what happened opposed the analogy. The village’s life does not
provide women, who could not defend their selves, proper life. Men do not
directly reponse to protect or to endeavour women, but even trick women. The law
of the jungle apparently lasts. The isolation of the area and many kinds of
complicated problem make the law preserved and taking lives in terrible way,
axe way. Yowero was sentenced to jail for 17 years, as a citizen, he had to be
punished for the murder. However, did the murder ever be just for the innocent
women?
Another murder was
also happened in November 1997, in Amborep Village. A grandfather hit in some
way, so that his granddaughter, young girl, died. The young girl struggled when
her grandfather tried to rape her, the struggle, unfortunately, caused her to
die. The pathetic grandfather ht her jaw hardly, the girl’s life could not be
saved. The grandfather’s life ended in jail.
Jail is always
solution for every crime. If only Asmat men have an understanding of that
muscles are used for protecting women, not as what is actual, such death would
not even exist. Victims are already down, because of unstuck understanding
about the necessity to be just women.
As violence in
household is an ordinary thing happened to women, so that there come times when
the women go to the local security in blood-scattered and weeping extremely.
Furthermore, those wives, with an awkward face, come to report, accompanied by a
brother that their husbands run away with other women, living in bevak. How far would security cover the wives in a
household? Even the existed tools are not quite good to chase the running
husbands. Whom do women suppose to ask protection? It takes a long time to make
men accept to protect women or to realize the gender equality and it demands
conceptual development, so that Asmat women reach the opportunity in
efficiency. There is no one able to protect women but the women is self.
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7)Buetkuar is the most rural
village in Akat District, which is an extension of Agats District. As a new
district that has not been independent yet, the criminality there was directly
handed by the police department of Agats.
8)Yowero; Alias
9)Bevak is an emergency cabin, a
simple room to stay in the middle of forest, used by Asmatan when their family
go to find sago.
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