BY JAMES BALOWSKI
JAKARTA It has now been a month since martial law was declared in Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh. But the "integrated operation" launched by the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) to smash the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and win the hearts and minds of the Acehnese people has, if anything, only succeeded in alienating them further.
Every day the TNI proudly announces the latest "body count" of GAM guerrilla fighters it claims to have killed. By June 20, the TNI claimed that 212 GAM rebels had been killed, 134 arrested and 184 surrendered. In addition, another 184 people had been arrested for unspecified reasons. The TNI says only 26 soldiers and police have been killed and 62 wounded.
Noticeably absent from these figures is the number of civilian casualties although, occasionally, a rough figure of 10 gets mentioned. This is despite the fact that the Red Cross alone says it has recovered almost 200 civilian bodies many bearing marks of beatings or torture.
Despite the high "body count", it is questionable if the TNI is making military progress. Speaking during a break in a workshop on Aceh and West Papua on June 18 for example, Hasnan Habib, a retired general and political analyst, said that the TNI only uses "quantitative" parameters to measure the operation. "They only say this many GAM [members are] dead, this many arrested, this many surrendered. There is no data on how many weapons seized". Hasnan said that this was necessary "to know to what degree GAM's strength has been incapacitated".
Hasnan went on to say that the US used the same kind of parameters in the Vietnam War. "So, when the TNI says they are in control of a GAM area and have forced GAM into the mountains, that is not a success. That's something which will obviously happen."
The TNI now claims that it has control of all of GAM's strongholds and the war has entered what it describes as the "most difficult phase" "separating the people from GAM". TNI chief Endriarto Sutarto has admitted this will be problematic, "because, whether or not they have a relationship with neighbours, family relationships, we must separate them [to determine] who is GAM and who is not".
A US freelance journalist, William Nessen, who has spent five weeks with GAM in northern Aceh says the fighting and casualties are much more extensive than reported by the TNI and Jakarta press. Nessen told the June 14 Sydney Morning Herald that GAM retains overwhelming support among villagers.
In a phone interview with the SMH, Nessen said that just in the part of Aceh where he had been, a minimum of 65 soldiers had died in the past month.
An editorial in the June 16 Jakarta Post observed: "Scores of civilians have been killed... Tens of thousands of people have been displaced because of the armed conflict. Many children are unable to go to school because their schools have been burned down; many people have lost their livelihoods and are now dependent on government handouts for their day-to-day survival. Road blocks and ID checks hamper their movement.
"Life has turned for the worse, not the better, for most Acehnese... And as if the government has not caused enough havoc, it has issued a number of other measures that are making life even more difficult.
"There was the requirement that all Acehnese apply for new identity cards, which literally means lining up for hours if not days... And last week, the government announced that thousands of Acehnese who work for the administration must undergo a 'Litsus', a screening process used during the Suharto era to weed out communists. This time, the goal is to rid the [provincial] bureaucracy of any GAM elements.
"It is interesting to note that the government, or the TNI, simply took a page out of Suharto's playbook in bringing back the widely discredited Litsus. The least they could have done was to have given it another name.
"One thing that has to be said about the martial law administrators in Aceh is that they are consistent. Their policies, including the Litsus, are consistently alienating the people of Aceh."
The government has also begun holding ceremonies for people to pledge their allegiance and loyalty to the Indonesian state. In an article in the June 18 Jakarta Post, Bangkok journalist Y. S. Tong described one such rally in the Acehnese capital of Banda Aceh:
"The people came here neither to play nor to jog. They stood before a flagpole which was erected in the center of the field to be on the receiving end of the government's plan to 'win the hearts and minds of the people'. On the other side of the flagpole was a stage and tents which sheltered VIPs sitting comfortably in their chairs out of the sun.
"Huge banners encircled the field, displaying messages such as 'Return to the right path, GAM, people are tired of you' and 'Hey, GAM separatists, don't burn my school'.
"At 8am sharp, the master of ceremonies called for a rehearsal while waiting for the arrival of Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu and Aceh governor Abdullah Puteh. The crowd was briefed about the two oaths that they were about to take ... followed by a rendition of the national anthem, which was met with less than a lukewarm response from the people. Their voices were almost inaudible as the speakers blasted the melody away.
"After singing, several people in the back began to sit or squat in small groups, puffing cigarettes and chatting ... This behavior did not go unnoticed by the organizers. One military officer grabbed the microphone and said in a stern voice, 'No one is to sit or squat! Get back in line or get out of here! We do not want any of you to spoil this. And we do not want to hear noise from the crowd', he chastised...
"After about an hour, Ryacudu and Puteh arrived with their entourage in a bus escorted by the military police. The event immediately started with a recital of the Koran. Then it was the two oaths as promised. The crowd was led through the reading of the oaths."
In the face of continued reports of human rights atrocities and reports by the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) of the discovery of mass graves in an area where the TNI has been carrying out "search and destroy" sweeps, Jakarta has moved to further restrict access for foreign journalists and human rights observers.
On June 17, President Megawati Sukarnoputri signed a decree requiring foreigners to obtain a permit from the justice ministry before being allowed to travel to Aceh. NGO activists must obtain a permit from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare. Journalists, including locals working as correspondents for foreign media, need to obtain a permit from the foreign ministry.
From Green Left Weekly, June 25, 2003.
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