Deprivation and Disease: Concomitants of Conflict

Using Banda as a case study, this paper examines the increased potential for HIV/AIDS infection as a result of the recent conflict and violence in Maluku. During a number of visits from January 1999 to April 2001, this conservative, comparatively isolated, community was studied for its knowledge and awareness of HIV/AIDS with professed sexual attitudes and potential risk behaviors. HIV/AIDS awareness was low and use of precautions was non-existent. In Asia HIV is predominantly transmitted heterosexually. Indonesia was very slow to acknowledge its vulnerability to this epidemic and has limited testing or treatment facilities, so the full extent of the problem is still unknown. Religious and cultural authorities have restricted the provision of realistically informative prevention or education programs. During the Maluku conflict, the community was somewhat abruptly modified by the influx of refugees, local violence, with a marked loss of income through the monetary crisis and the cessation of tourism. As a result, potential risk behaviors for HIV were revealed, developed or exposed to the dismay of the community. Women are the most vulnerable, being restricted by religion in necessary knowledge or the power to negotiate their social/sexual relations, while often responsible for family maintenance in the absence of menfolk. 114 CAKALELE, VOL. 11