I still very much remember what happened on that day. It was the night before when the aeroplanes came. My husband turned to me and said, ‘In only a short time Biak will be bathed in blood.’ We were all scared. We told the children. Don’t go out of the house. You have to stay here.
The army and police were everywhere. Bullets were raining down. The sky was on fire. We could hear them shooting people at the tower. All the neighbours’ children started to cry. The kids were all terrified.
At 6am the light came up and I could still hear the shooting at the port. I saw two people who had jumped in the ocean. They were being chased as they swam. They swam until they got to shore and then they ran to our house. We ushered them inside but we were very scared. My husband said, “quickly, quickly, take off your wet clothes”. He told them to dry their hair and change into his clothes. He asked the two men to sit down and he put our two young daughters on their laps.
We told the children to sit down quietly and we opened all the doors and windows. Not ten minutes later, the army came in front of our house. “1,2,3” they yelled. “Get out of the house. If you don’t you are dead!” We quickly moved outside and all stood there shaking.
Others neighbours who were too slow to open their doors had them shot the doors to pieces by the army. They were all wearing combat gear and were armed. They held guns at all of us.
The children were in tears. “Are you hiding anyone?” “No”, my husband said. “Is this truly your entire family?” “Yes, this is. This is my family. These are my brothers.” The military said “you better be careful. If you are hiding people and we find out, your entire family will be killed.” My husband replied, “We are not hiding anyone.” He was shaking, I was shaking. The army said to us “What do you want freedom for? It is better that you just hope in your canoes and look for fish so you can feed your family. If you talk about freedom all you will find is death.”
I remember that it was raining and we could still hear more shooting. We felt it was the end of the world. But we survived and so did the two men.
