By JAMES BALOWSKI
JAKARTA — Following the breakdown of last-ditch talks in Tokyo between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Jakarta on May 19 launched a "security restoration operation" in Aceh — an all-out military offensive to crush GAM and "resolve" the question of Aceh once and for all.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on May 18 decreed that Aceh is in a "state of emergency" — and therefore under martial law. The decree authorises the deployment of some 30,000 troops.
Massive military operations — including rocket and bomb attacks, air, land and sea assaults, and the use of tanks — are being conducted in six regions of Aceh where GAM is believed to have military strongholds. The Indonesian military (TNI) claims to have killed scores of GAM rebels.
Since the military operation began, 12,000 people have been displaced. Residents in Aceh's towns and cities are only leaving their homes to buy basic necessities, inter-city transport has all but stopped and TNI soldiers at roadblocks are extorting money from the few people who dare use the roads. Some 200 schools have been burned down, with each side blaming the other for the destruction.
The Indonesian government claims its assault on Aceh is an "integrated operation", which will include "humanitarian" aid and the restoration of local government administration. Health minister Achmad Sujudi said his department will spend US$6 million during the first six months of the operation, a fraction of the estimated $200 million the military operation will cost.
In a communique on May 21, GAM "prime minister" Mahmood Malik condemned Jakarta for destroying peace in Aceh: "We appeal to the UN for its immediate involvement in the resolution of the Aceh conflict and for an international fact-finding mission to be sent to Aceh to investigate the crimes against humanity that have been committed."
The May 20 Jakarta daily Kompas quoted TNI chief General Endriartono Sutarto as telling the people of Aceh that "there is no reason to be nervous or frightened because of the declaration of a state of emergency". However, during a tour of Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, that same day, he urged TNI troops to fight GAM until "your last drop of blood... Chase them, destroy GAM. Don't talk about it, just finish them off."
Men and boys murdered
Part of the TNI strategy is to "separate" civilians from GAM guerrillas, moving civilians out of "strategic" areas. Troops enter villages and order the women and children to come out from their homes, followed by unarmed men. Theoretically, only GAM fighters then remain. Three days into the war, according to GAM, 50 civilians have already been murdered by Indonesian troops in these operations.
Journalists have been told of soldiers ordering young unarmed men and boys from their houses and shooting them. Radio Australia reported on May 22 that journalists from the Agence France-Presse witnessed 11 bodies near Cot Batee and Cot Ijeuh; several of the victims had been shot in the head.
The majority of stories tell of men and boys being ordered from their homes and led away; they are executed nearby or just disappear.
Major-General Endang Suwarya, the commander overseeing the campaign has insisted: "Absolutely no civilians were killed. We have a list of targets that we want killed or captured. We don't miss or make mistakes."
However, foreign minister Hassan Warialda admitted that, as rebels no longer wear military uniforms, it is difficult to distinguish from the local population.
BBC journalist Orlando de Guzman visited the northern village of Mapa Mamplamsome (also known as Cot Rabo), a GAM stronghold. Villagers described how soldiers arrived before dawn on May 21, coming across a group of seven boys and men who were sleeping in a hut near a prawn farm. The soldiers dragged the boys out, lined them up on one of the dykes dividing the ponds and shot them one by one at close range. Three or four others were then told to run, before being shot in the back.
A report by Matthew More in the May 23 Melbourne Age said that more than 30 villagers from the same village were severely beaten by soldiers. More reported that an Indonesian journalist who went to village soon after the killings said soldiers gleefully directed him where to go: "They said, 'We already killed 10 rats over there'."
In response to detailed written questions from the Age, TNI spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki said soldiers had seen three well-known "GAM spies" while on patrol and, following an exchange of fire, killed them and nine others.
As part of its campaign to crush GAM, police have begun rounding up activists, charging them with subversion over their alleged connection with GAM. On May 21, police arrested women's rights activist Cut Askiin, declaring her a suspect in subversion and terror cases in the province. In North Aceh, three people were arrested. Two have since been released.
Suwarya has accused the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) — whose chairperson is currently on trial for violating the law on public rallies — and the Student Solidarity for the People's Movement (SMUR) organisation of being GAM sympathisers. He threatened to arrest their members if they continued their activities.
Ceasefire sabotaged
On December 9, Indonesia and GAM signed the historic Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) in Geneva, facilitated by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC). The agreement required both sides to begin demilitarisation within two months. GAM was to start storing weapons at secret designated sites, while the army was supposed to relocate its forces and change its role "from a strike force to a defensive force".
A Joint Security Committee (JSC) was tasked with monitoring the peace process. Its members were drawn from the TNI, GAM and 50 foreign monitors who represent the HDC.
Although there were numerous violations of the agreement, the first two months saw a dramatic decline in violence. However, Jakarta complained that GAM was taking advantage of the ceasefire to recruit new members, reinforce its positions, collect taxes and take control of government institutions.
On March 3, a mob of around 1000 people attacked the JSC offices in Takengon, the main town of Central Aceh, injuring two representatives. The military claimed the crowd had accused the monitors of failing to respond to complaints about GAM. A similar attack occurred on April 7 in East Aceh.
GAM and human rights organisations accused the military of being behind the attacks. According to a March 7 report by the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the March attackers included 500 TNI militiamen and members of the TNI's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad).
In response to the attacks, peace monitors were forced to withdraw to Banda Aceh. When asked if the incidents were part of an organised campaign to wreck the peace deal, David Gorman, the head of the HDC in Indonesia, told Reuters on April 9: "It's clear these demonstrations, threats and attacks against the teams are organised and they all have a consistent message. That message has been anti-GAM, anti-JSC and anti-peace process." He declined to name who was behind the attacks.
In late April, Jakarta seized on a request by GAM for a two-day postponement of negotiations in Geneva, scheduled for April 25, to call off talks altogether. GAM was given until May 12 to agree to lay down its arms and renounce its goal of independence for Aceh.
Under increasing international pressure, particularly from Washington and Japan, President Megawati on May 13 allowed government negotiators to meet GAM leaders in Tokyo on May 18. However, just one day before the meeting, police arrested five GAM negotiators in Banda Aceh as they were leaving to catch their flight to Tokyo.
Initially, GAM's exiled leadership in Sweden threatened to boycott the talks, but the May 18 meeting went ahead with the Aceh-based negotiators participating by cellular phone.
After 13 hours of talks, Indonesian government negotiators walked out, claiming that GAM only wanted to talk about "technicalities" rather than the "substantive issues" put forward by the government. Coordinating minister for security and political affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said GAM refused to drop its independence demand.
It is clear that the Indonesian government set out to sabotage negotiations. The COHA was only intended to achieve an end to hostilities. No part of the agreement specified that GAM or Jakarta had to agree on the question of independence or autonomy for Aceh.
In Tokyo, Jakarta set three conditions that GAM could not possibly meet: that GAM accept special autonomy within the republic of Indonesia; that GAM disband; and that its armed wing lay down its weapons and disband.
End military ties
The Australian government has defended Indonesia's actions and said the war will not affect military cooperation with Indonesia. Defence minister Robert Hill said on May 20: "We have taken a decision to work with that part of Kopassus [TNI special forces] that has a counter-terrorism capability ... And that's got nothing to do with the issue in Aceh ... We accept that Aceh is part of Indonesia and that they're right to protect their own internal interests."
While calling for negotiations and the involvement of the UN, Labor's foreign affairs spokesperson Kevin Rudd on May 20 failed to condemn the attack. He stated that "Labor does not dispute that Aceh is part of Indonesia".
Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) has initiated a sign-on statement calling on the Australian government to apply pressure to Jakarta to withdraw its troops from Aceh, end martial law and resume negotiations. It also demands that Canberra end all military and security ties with Indonesia.
[To sign the ASAP statement, visit < http://www.asia-pacific-A HREF="mailto:action.org"><action.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, May 28, 2003.
Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.