Pip Hinman
On January 14, the Aceh high court upheld the verdict of a lower court which last year convicted five Free Aceh Movement (GAM) negotiators of treason and terrorism and sentenced them to long prison terms. The maximum penalty is death.
The five had been sentenced to serve between 12 and 16 years in prison, but due to overcrowding in Acehnese prisons the Indonesian government will send them to Nusakambangan, a prison in central Java set up under Dutch colonial rule.
A spokesperson for the Acehnese Community of Australia, Nurdin Abdul Rahman, condemned the court's decision and said he is worried that the negotiators would be tortured. He called on the Australian government to intervene to stop the GAM negotiators from being imprisoned. "These five GAM negotiators had been appointed by GAM, with the consent of the government of Indonesia", he said.
By early in 2003, it had become clear that President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government wasn't interested in finding a peaceful solution. It had insisted that GAM drop its demand for independence and disband if the negotiations were to continue. On May 19, the Megawati government declared martial law in Aceh and sent a 40,000-strong military force to try to crush the rebels.
A report by the US-based Human Rights Watch released on December 18 states that extra-judicial murders, "disappearances", physical abuse, arbitrary detention and restrictions on freedom of movement are now commonplace in Aceh. The report was compiled from the testimonies of Acehnese refugees in Malaysia.
From Green Left Weekly, January 21, 2004.
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