A Camp in the Middle of the Forest

At the top of a green hill, several houses on stilts stand on a field whose soil is red. All the houses are made of rough tree wood and the roof is made of sago leaves.

AGUSTINUS WIBOWO

Walking across the bridge from mossy tree trunks on the way to Digo, Papua New Guinea.

I heard a lot about Digo, a small camp inhabited by OPM refugees located in the middle of the forest, right on the border between the Republic of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. The refugees were stranded there because they were expelled by the PNG villagers who originally accommodated them.

To reach Digo, I departed from Tarakbits, a PNG village about 10 kilometers from the Indonesian border. I was accompanied by Felix Ahole. He is only about 140 centimeters high. The Yomgom people living in Tarakbits are generally short in stature.