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Indonesia's Latest 'Peace Plan' Causes Death Toll to Double
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New laws fail to solve 25 years of conflict in Acheh
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| Pakat Jeroh, Acheh, Oct 21, 2001 (The Observer, UK) —— The Indonesian security forces who arrived in two truckloads were smiling and very friendly. So when they asked for help to find a mass grave, allegedly containing 12 bodies, the village leaders trusted them. But the two men sent to help never came back, recalls Kamaruddin, the village secretary of Pakat Jeroh, a community of 84 families in the central mountains of Acheh, the troubled province to which Indonesia has promised, but not given, autonomy. |
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By John Aglionby |
| The Observer |
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| 'For the three months since then they have hidden in a school building, often too afraid to tend to their fields and reliant on irregular food handouts. 'The government has promised to help us rebuild, but we've seen nothing.'' — Kamaruddin, village secretary of Pakat Jeroh
This year's death toll of more than 1,700 is twice that for the same period last year.
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 earing reprisals, the villagers sought sanctuary the next day in a nearby mosque. Their instincts were right. Two days later their homes were burnt to the ground.
For the three months since then they have hidden in a school building, often too afraid to tend to their fields and reliant on irregular food handouts. 'The government has promised to help us rebuild, but we've seen nothing,' Kamaruddin said.
The story is typical of recent events in Acheh, the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra where the Free Acheh Movement (GAM) has fought for an independent state since 1976.
Not only have the Indonesian government's recent efforts failed to resolve the conflict in the region, the little action that it has taken has resulted in a dramatic increase in the violence. In April the government of Abdurrahman Wahid, then the President, decided to try a new plan for progress. A wide-ranging autonomy law was passed, but only the security aspects of the plan were put into effect, with more than 40,000 police and soldiers sent to the province.
Police data show that since the security operation began in May more than 50 people have been killed every week, most of them innocent civilians. But human rights workers say that figure is probably a huge underestimate. 'It could be two or three times that amount,' said a human rights worker in the town of Takengon named only as Johansyah. 'No one knows because the military just block off villages.'
This year's death toll of more than 1,700 is twice that for the same period last year. A local journalist, who did not want to be named, said: 'It's unfortunately got to the stage where the discovery of a body or a shooting is just not news any more.'
Meanwhile, the autonomy law, which was meant to give Acheh 70 per cent of the revenue from its natural resources for eight years and 50 per cent for the next five, is stuck in minutiae. The new President, Megawati Sukarnoputri,
has extended it for another four months, but no one is expecting anything beyond more fighting.
Moreover, the failure to prosecute members of the security forces for the atrocities they have carried out has caused widespread anger. 'The military will never win people's trust if they're not prepared to try to punish their own people,' an aid worker, Nurdin Rahman, said.
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'Only one notable trial has taken place in the last two years; none of the commanders with responsibility in the incident was indicted. Soldiers charged
with killing three of Rahman's colleagues have mysteriously vanished from the prison where they were detained.'
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Only one notable trial has taken place in the last two years; none of the commanders with responsibility in the incident was indicted. Soldiers charged with killing three of Rahman's colleagues have mysteriously vanished from the prison where they were detained.
In some respects, the military operation has had some success. In effect, GAM used to be the government in much of the province, but its influence has waned. Some soldiers recently deployed in the province also appear to be doing a professional job, although the commanders admit they are facing a huge task to win the people over.
'The military has such a bad image up here and the people are so traumatised by years of conflict that it will take time for them to change their attitude to us,' said Lieutenant-Colonel Firdaus, the senior spokesman in the region. 'If we can end the violence, then it will happen more quickly.'
Such a goal is unrealistic, Rahman said, because many members of the security forces are still violent and show no respect to local people.
'People are not afraid of armed conflict so much as midnight terror; unidentified people coming to their villages, burning houses, killing people and stealing animals,' he said.
GAM and the Indonesian security forces blame each other for the tactics, which include assassinations of public figures who have offered to lead mediation efforts and the burning of public buildings.
GAM admits it is resorting to kidnapping more often, but says it has little choice. 'If the government does not want to resolve the crisis in Acheh through dialogue and give the people the right to choose their future, then we will have to continue using other methods to force them to the negotiating table,' said Ishak Daud, a senior field commander.
The fact that GAM is talking about negotiations at all, however, is a shift from its attitude of 'independence or death' and shows that it realises it cannot defeat Jakarta by military means.
But in the meantime ordinary people are caught in the middle, Kamaruddin said. 'We just want to live in peace,' he said. 'We want to be able to feed ourselves and send our children to school. Is that too much to ask?'
© 2001, The Observer, UK. The article is distributed by Tapol in London
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