Some 400,000 people converged on the capital of Indonesia's nothernmost province of Aceh, Banda Aceh, on November 10 for a two-day independence rally, despite scores of killings by security forces trying to prevent demonstrators attending.
The November 11 South China Morning Post said that by late afternoon, 10,000 had assembled at the Baiturrahman mosque to mark the first anniversary of a popular call for a vote on self-rule for the region. Last year's demonstration was attended by nearly 1 million people — almost a quarter of the province's population.
They shouted "freedom" as a woman, whose husband was killed by Indonesian soldiers, gave a fiery speech at the start of the rally. "It is time that Aceh got its independence. Our suffering is almost unbearable", she told the crowd.
Organisers blamed the low turnout on the security forces' violent attempts to stop people joining the rally. A November 9 Agence France-Presse report said that police had admitted shooting 13 people dead "in self-defence". Other reports put the figure as high as 26. Human rights groups reported more than 100 had been injured. They said the final death toll could be more than 40 once staff had checked reports from remote areas.
Human rights activist Faisal Hadi was quoted in the November 11 Sydney Morning Herald: "It is clear the police and army were prepared to do anything to stop people reaching Banda Aceh for the rally."
Hadi said some of the deaths occurred when convoys of trucks and cars refused to turn round at police roadblocks and others were shot when they tried to reach the city by boat. "Police opened fire into the crowds while they were at sea and also trying to dock. There was no way they could miss", he said.
The South China Morning Post said that, according to a witness, a 14-year-old boy was killed and scores injured when soldiers fired at a mosque packed with thousands of residents in the Tualang Cut area of East Aceh on November 9. The victims were sheltering in the mosque after police barred them from going to the rally.
The South China Morning Post also reported that in a separate incident in East Aceh on the same day, security forces shot dead two people who tried to resist attempts to prevent them from going to the rally. In the Bireun district, four people were killed and dozens injured in a similar incident
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has warned security forces against using violence saying it could undermine the "humanitarian pause" between the government and the rebel Free Aceh Movement. "I will not let Acehnese ... be shot", Wahid was quoted as saying. "I'm in charge of the military and police. Do they think I'm afraid to fire them?
On November 8, 10,000 pro-independence Acehnese staged a rally in front of the United Nations office in Jakarta demanding international intervention to end the violence in Aceh. A leaflet distributed there by the Information Centre for Aceh Referendum— which was also responsible for organising the November 10 rally in Banda Aceh — called the government "neo-colonialist" and said it could not solve the continuing violence.
"The kind of ... crimes against humanity conducted by the government of Indonesia have destroyed the culture and economy of Aceh", the statement said. "Arbitrary military operations conducted by the government of Indonesia are obvious violations of the general understanding for the humanitarian pause between the state of Aceh and the colonialist government", it said.
The statement made three demands: that the UN and the international community intervene to seek a peaceful end to the conflict; that Aceh's historical right to independence be recognised; and that the UN pressure Indonesia to halt the violence.
BY JAMES BALOWSKI
[Visit Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor's web site at <http://www.asiet.org.au>.]