On November 25, the trials of Australian-based, British-born academic Lesley McCulloch and US nurse Joy-Lee Sadler began in Aceh. They are being tried for visa violations, after the prosecution failed to make espionage charges stick. McCulloch is a leading expert on Aceh and has documented human rights abuses in the province by the Indonesian military (TNI).
The women have been held in a tiny, windowless cell since September 10. Sadler is seriously ill, due to her HIV-positive condition, and McCulloch requires back surgery. Despite this, on November 27, the trial was adjourned for three weeks at the insistence of the prosecutor. The women fear the trial could drag into next year. The Australian, British and US governments have done little to defend the women.
In desperation, Sadler has begun a hunger strike.
The prosecution's cat-and-mouse game is payback for McCulloch's exposure of the TNI's crimes. As Sadler told the British Guardian on November 25, "The level of pure hate towards Lesley has been so great. I was really honest to God afraid they would take her out. I've never seen such hate".
The TNI has learnt the lessons of East Timor: keep the international spotlight off its repressive rule, especially in Aceh and West Papua. That is why the Indonesian government has tried to frame these two women, why it is cruelly mistreating them. Ironically, international attention on the women's custody has helped highlight the Aceh conflict.
International pressure has also contributed to the present dialogue between the TNI and the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM). However, the TNI is using this dialogue as cover for an escalation of military operations. Some 21,000 extra troops have been mobilised this month to carry out a series of major offensives. As a result, the number of displaced people has tripled to 62,000. Tanks, helicopter gunships and more than 1000 troops are holding the north Aceh village of Cot Trieng under siege.
Despite this, Prime Minister John Howard's government has begun to rebuild cooperation with the murderous TNI thugs. Defence minister Robert Hill stated in parliament on October 16 that the resumption of military ties will aid "counter-terrorism".
What a lie! The TNI regularly carries out acts of terror in Aceh, West Papua and in other parts of Indonesia — just as it did in East Timor. It is involved in extensive criminal activities, including illegal logging and fishing, protection rackets, prostitution and drug-dealing. The most recent example was the killings at the Freeport mine in West Papua, which were committed by the local military to force the mine to resume its protection pay-offs.
The TNI has ties with extremist religious groups, such as Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Laskar Jihad. A December 2001 report by the Belgium-based think-tank, the International Crisis Group, suggests that JI was created in the 1970s by the head of Indonesia's military intelligence.
Past US and Australian training programs have not reformed the "culture" of the TNI — even former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans admitted in the July 24, 2001, International Herald Tribune that this "training" has "helped only to produce more professional human rights abusers".
A resumption of military ties will give political legitimacy to Indonesia's state-sponsored terrorists and gives the military a freer hand to commit political violence throughout the Indonesia.
Australia must overhaul its entire policy towards Indonesia. This should begin with ending all ties with the discredited military. Canberra must immediately intervene to secure McCulloch's and Sadler's speedy release.
Canberra's foreign policy towards Jakarta is based on collusion with Indonesia's corrupt ruling elites. The Australian people must demand that the federal government's policies toward Indonesia are socially just and aimed at assisting the people and organisations that the TNI deems to be the "enemy": the movements for independence in Aceh and West Papua, and those campaigning for genuine democracy and economic justice for the majority of Indonesians.
From Green Left Weekly, December 4, 2002.
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