Acehnese activist Kautsar has been struggling for his people's right to self-determination for some years. In 1998, he helped to form Student Solidarity with the People (SMUR), the main Acehenese student-led popular movement for independence. He was instrumental in organising the huge anti-Suharto demonstrations in Aceh in May 1998 and in December 1999 he played a leading role in organising a two million-strong pro-referendum rally.

Invited to attend the recent Democratic Socialist Party congress, Kautsar told Green Left Weekly that SMUR is campaigning around three main demands: a referendum with the option to choose independence or remain a part of Indonesia; a full investigation and international trial of human rights perpetrators; and the withdrawal of all Indonesian troops from Aceh.

The Acehnese struggle, Kautsar said, is based on the “commitment, spirit and consistency of the hungry and oppressed”. The struggle for national self-determination is not a narrow nationalist one, he said. Rather, SMUR believes it's important to infuse the national struggle with an internationalist outlook. “We must not close our eyes to the condition of people's movements struggling for national liberation elsewhere in the world.”

Kautsar emphasised the need to develop closer links with democratic forces in Indonesia. Since 1999, SMUR has been collaborating with the People's Democratic Party, the only Indonesian party campaigning for a referendum in Aceh. 

The struggles in Aceh and West Papua are connected to the Indonesian people's struggle for real democratic rights, Kautsar said. “We have the ability to force economic and political concessions from the government because its repression in Aceh and West Papua illustrates to all Indonesians the naked exploitation of capitalism.”

Violence escalates

“Extra-judicial killings, disappearances, rape, seizure of property, burning people's homes and erroneous propaganda about what is really happening in Aceh continues to be carried out by the Indonesian government. Since 1950, governments have been trying to stop the people's resistance to the economic and political injustices.”

Kautsar cited a number of factors contributing to the conflict in Aceh. “Historically, there was a revolutionary struggle against Dutch and Japanese colonialism. After that Sukarno continued the repression as did the Suharto regime which turned Aceh, which is rich in natural resources, into a region of great suffering.

“This was not just because of the exploitation of Aceh's resources from which the Acehenese people receive no benefit, but also because Aceh became one of Indonesia's most backward provinces. Some elements in the bureaucracy and the political elite are demanding a larger portion of these benefits, a view which accommodates to the demand for special autonomy status.”

Any decision about the status of Aceh must be resolved democratically Kautsar stressed. Many intellectuals, NGOs, religious leaders and teachers are now demanding a referendum with the option of independence and that the perpetrators of human rights violations be tried, that the military leave Aceh and that the victims of the violence be rehabilitated.

“The antipathy of Acehenese towards the Indonesian government grew in a latent way during former President Suharto's New Order era. When Suharto was toppled, there was a fleeting hope that the perpetrators of military violence would be tried”, Kautsar said.

However, the Habibie government ignored the wishes of the Acehense people and violence erupted again in 1999 with the Wibawa and Sadar Rencong I and II military operations aimed at suppressing the people's movement which had become more militant.

As the Indonesian government's repression increased, GAM was forced to develop its armed wing to defend its activists. But Kautsar said civilians were the main victims of the state violence. “The military claimed these civilians were GAM supporters. Then people began to realise they had no choice but to resist given that they were being accused of doing so anyway.”

Conditions have only deteriorated under the government of President Abdurrahman Wahid, Kautsar said. “The character of the conflict and lack of political will on the part of Indonesia to address the suffering in Aceh has only increased people's desire to choose independence as a solution to the conflict.”

Kautsar described recent steps to resolve the conflict as “increasingly absurd”. “The so-called 'humanitarian pause' agreed to by GAM and the Indonesian government has had no significant impact on the violence. Uncertainties and delays in dialogue between the two sides have created greater uncertainty over the democratic and human rights situation.”

The recent month-long extension to the “humanitarian pause” does not end the danger of the government declaring Aceh a civil emergency or marshal law which would lead to even more violence. “Whatever happens”, Kautsar said, “it will never diminish the people's struggle. Rather, each military action in Aceh will only spread the fervour of resistance.”

[Kautsar will be the keynote speaker at a Sydney public meeting sponsored by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) on January 17 at 7pm at 23 Abercrombie Street, Chippendale. Call ASIET on (02) 9690 1230 or 0407 932388 for more information or to get involved.]

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