BY JOHN GAUCI
SYDNEY — One hundred and fifty people rallied outside the Australian Defence Force headquarters here on January 20 to support self-determination for the Indonesian province of Aceh. The action coincided with a self-determination rally of 300 activists in Banda Aceh.
The demonstration, organised by the Australian Acehnese community and Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET), called for an independence referendum for Aceh, the withdrawal of the Indonesian military and the release of all political prisoners. It also directed its ire at the Australian government, calling for an immediate end to all military ties with Indonesia.
Like the people of East Timor prior to their independence, the people of Aceh are being subjected to an ongoing terror campaign by a 30,000-strong Indonesian occupation army. The province has a population of four million people with its own unique language and culture but, of its natural resources, all but 0.38% end up in the hands of Jakarta powerbrokers.
The Indonesian government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has refused all demands for a referendum on independence. This year's death toll from the military's terror campaign has already reached 78 people, following the January 18 discovery of yet another mass grave holding the bodies of 14 people. Two of those found were identified as environmental activists.
ASIET's national coordinator Pip Hinman made the comparison to East Timor explicit in her speech to the demonstrators.
"Australia had just been deputised by [US secretary of state] Colin Powell as sheriff for the Asia-Pacific region. People in Australia must ensure there isn't a repeated foreign policy fiasco like East Timor", she told the rally. "Australia's foreign policy is dictated by what's best for Australian big business. We must force this government, once again, to respect the wishes of the Acehnese and West Papuan peoples."
Her words were echoed by Kautsar, the founding coordinator of the Acehnese group SMUR, Student Solidarity for the People. Noting that the federal government's December White Paper on defence called for a stepped up military relationship between the two countries, he instead called for Australians to pressure their government to end its military ties with the Indonesian regime altogether.
Kautsar also sought to dispel misreporting of the Acehnese struggle in the Australian media. "This is not a religious or ethnic conflict. Christian churches and the Chinese community are not being attacked in Aceh. Both groups are united with the overwhelming majority of Acehnese in a struggle for a referendum with the option of independence."
"The Acehnese have repeatedly been offered Islamic law by [former Indonesian president] Habibie and Wahid to mask the real origins of the nature of the struggle", he revealed. "This has been repeatedly rejected by the Acehnese. We want a secular and democratic government and the Indonesian military must get out now."
The rally also heard from John Otto Ondawame, a representative of the West Papuan freedom movement, Andrew McNaughton from the Australia East Timor Association and Mohammad Dahlan from the Australian Acehnese Association.
"The East Timor campaign started with small actions", the Democratic Socialist Party's Nick Everrett reminded protesters, "but took on mass proportions. Previous Australian governments have been proved wrong in their claims that East Timor would never gain independence and we will prove them wrong in Aceh and West Papua."