BY PIP HINMAN
The Indonesian government's "limited" military operation, currently underway, is not just against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), but against the majority of Acehnese who want an end to the violence and a referendum on self-determination.
While the Indonesian military, the TNI, is tight-lipped about the timing and nature of its latest operation, repression and intimidation hasn't ever stopped, not even during the "ceasefire" periods.
The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid is now planning to send an extra three battalions (of 650 soldiers each) to the province, to bolster the tens of thousands of police and military already there. The pretext is the March 13 shutdown of ExxonMobil's refineries in the region — the huge US-based oil multinational claims sabotage by GAM is preventing it from operating.
The new TNI operation is aimed at wiping out GAM, something the regime of former dictator Suharto failed to do. To give the TNI freer rein, the Wahid government has branded GAM a "separatist" organisation, thereby allowing the TNI to launch its offensives without the need to gain the approval of civilian authorities.
But the TNI faces three big obstacles in Aceh: the well-armed and organised GAM fighters themselves, who control most of the northern part of the province and have a base of support in rural areas; the urban civil democratic movements, who are becoming more organised in pressing their demand for the military to leave and for self-determination; and the non-government organisations and human rights groups, who are stepping up their campaigns for the same demands.
The murders on March 29 of three members of the Henry Dunant Center, a peace monitoring team, has highlighted the TNI's real aim — to crush any form of resistance to its plans. The Support Committee for Human Rights in Aceh (SCHRA), which includes 31 international, Indonesian and Achenese NGOs, says the TNI is not simply guarding ExxonMobil installations, but sweeping surrounding villages and causing a new exodus of displaced people.
Acehnese student groups looking after displaced persons also report that security forces are harassing them and blocking access to many of the refugee camps.
On March 27-28, some 1000 supporters of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) protested outside the United Nations office and the Dutch Embassy in Jakarta, calling for international support for a referendum and for the military to leave Aceh.
According to Syadiah Marhaban, a spokesperson for SIRA, the protest was also aimed at pressuring the Dutch government, the former colonial power in the area, to take responsibility for its "unfinished problem".
The more conservative wing of the pro-referendum movement believes the Dutch betrayed the Acehnese people in 1949 by agreeing to the formation of Indonesia. The majority of Acehnese were enthusiastic supporters of the anti-colonial revolution against the Dutch.