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 ia an elaborate system of pick-ups and drop-offs, I was eventually delivered to a remote meeting point where a young man M (his initial only) (14 years), and two young women F (18 years) and R (17 years) were waiting to meet me. F and R had just returned from school.
These children are effectively under ‘arrest’ by the Acheh Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF), the group fighting for independence. The ASNLF have accused these three children, and five others of being cuaks (informers) for the military. An accusation that all have admitted to. The young people are from different villages, but the story told by all three is similar.
The Indonesian military (TNI) allegedly ‘invited’ them into their employment. M says he was promised Rp 450,000 (about US $45) a month, while F and R were promised Rp 500,000 a month. There is no doubt that the salary offered is not unattractive in a country where the economy is in severe recession, and where Rp 450,000 is more than many earn in a month.
M says he worked for TNI for 4 months but received only one months salary before being captured by the independence movement. Similarly, both F and R report that they worked for five months but received no payment. During this time they continued to live with their families. M says the TNI visited him every day for a report. The two young women allege that the military visited them often, asking for information and sometimes for sexual favours. Ishak Daud, spokesperson for the ASNLF in East Acheh remarks that many young women are befriended by the police and military and are then recruited as informers. They have no choice says Daud, as their lives and the lives of their families is threatened. This is indeed confirmed by the three.
These three are not the only child informers. M reports that six friends around his age are working for the military. F says ‘so many of my friends work for TNI - all of them girls. We were flattered by the attention they [the police and military] gave us, but now it has turned into a nightmare. They are all very scared.’
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The ASNLF say they are responsible for the death of 7 unarmed supporters of the movement. Daud said ‘ we know of only 7 deaths, but in fact there may be more.’ Normally the punishment for informers is death. But, I am human, and these are only children. The problem for us now is what to do with them. Since they were captured three weeks ago they stay in the village with us and we send them to school every day. We also educate them about what is right and wrong. They are helping us with our investigation. Part of the problem is that the TNI and police have posts very close to the civilian population. This causes fear and terror but also leads to many young women taking military men as their ‘boyfrineds’ and can lead to the situation we have now.’
All three say they have been treated well by the ASNLF. R says ‘at the time I was offered the money, I was happy to help the military. But then I realised that there was no money, only threats and I was very afraid. But what could I do? I am glad that the ASNLF caught me and I have apologised for what I have done.’ F says she tried to resist the ‘requests’ for help but that the TNI threatened her with violence.
R said ‘please let the international community know what is happening to the children in Acheh.’ They say their friends who are still ‘working’ for the security forces have not been paid, are very afraid, but don’t know what to do.
Daud said ‘we don’t know what to do with them. If we send them back to their villages the military will come for them, probably to kill them.’ M says he wants to go back home to his family. He is a very troubled and sad young face of the conflict. Daud says the ASNLF is now ready to free the children. He also admits that the families of all three have requested that the children be returned home. but their lives may be at risk.
There are two issues that must be addressed here. The first is the alleged use of the military of children as informers, so drawing them into the conflict and exposing them to the situation that M, R and F are now in . The second is how to return these young informers to their families with a guarantee of their personal safety. Perhaps the intervention of an international NGO is the solution in this case. But, as well as helping to solve a problem that has occurred, the international community should take preventive action. These three can name the military who recruited them, but are sceptical that release of the information to the authorities will bring anything but further trauma for them and their families. The military personnel who are recruiting these young people should be brought to justice for the crimes they have perpetrated and the young lives they have effectively destroyed.
Their hopes for the future? Of only one thing they are sure - that they are now involved in a potentially deadly situation. And around them, the conflict in Acheh is already more violent this year than last. Approximately 200 have died in the first 4 weeks of the year and around 70 have been arrested according to the Acheh office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBH). The military has confirmed its commitment to a military solution and its blatant disregard for any serious attempts at dialogue with their self-congratulatory remarks about the recent shooting of the ASNLF military commander, Abdullah Syafie’ie. Certainly the general feeling here among many of the population is sadness at Syafie’ie’s death and anger at the Jakarta government.
The international community has been distracted recently by events in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India and also in Palestine. But meanwhile a deadly game of roulette is being played out in Acheh. The results of President Megawati’s order to the military and police to solve the problem in Acheh are evident. Giving a green light (as Megawati has done) to a military that is struggling to attain any level of professionalism has resulted in an increasing numbers of deaths, tortures and arrests. Also in the number of robberies and houses burned by the security forces as they ‘sweep’ through Achenese civil sociey searching for members of the independence movement.
Not only are the military and police destroying the economic and infrastructural fabric of Acheh, they are also destroying the people. They are in fact, breeding a new generation of pro-independence supporters. This is a very dangerous game of roulette indeed, and one which the international community could and should persuade the Indonesian government to cease. In the young faces of M, R and F I should have seen youthfulness and hope for the future. I saw only insecurity. Daud appeals to the international community to play a role in returning these children back to a normal civilian life.
There is of course the issue of whether the ASNLF has also engaged in an abuse the rights of these children by ‘arresting’ them and removing them from their family environment. Indeed, there is a case to be answered here. But one should not lose sight of the fact that it was the Indonesian security forces who (it is alleged) included these children as actors in the conflict. This is the first issue. Whether the ASNLF should perhaps respond differently in the future is the second dilemma that must be addressed.
Lesley McCulloch lectures in Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania, Australia.
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