Fear rules in blood-stained Indonesian province

Violent death is quietly covered up in Aceh, Herald correspondent JOHN MARTINKUS writes in the first of a two-part series.

BANDA ACEH - On a street in Banda Aceh, an Indonesian sergeant with wild, bloodshot eyes talked of snipers. His men had killed two of them this morning, he said.

With an imaginary gun, he took aim at the top floor of nearby buildings and demonstrated how they did it.

Acehnese civilians avoided him by crossing the street as he yelled to two foreign journalists about the recent combat. His Indonesian military comrades just laughed, and refused to come out of their sandbagged post in the middle of the main shopping district.

The sergeant's hysteria was the only sign that something had happened in town that day. The bodies of those killed had been taken quickly to the morgue and then collected by the families. No funerals were planned because they would draw a response from the military.

Local human-rights workers and journalists had no choice but to accept the military claim that the dead men were armed members of the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) separatist movement.

One local photographer managed to get into the hospital morgue, but his picture of a bullet-riddled corpse on a stretcher did not reveal anything about what happened and, consequently, no newspapers or wire services used it. It was simply another incident in what has become the Indonesian military's self-proclaimed war on terror.

This sort of violence has become routine since the breakdown of the peace process last April and the re-deployment of the Indonesian military to the province.

Human-rights workers and GAM representatives put the death toll among civilians at 1700 for last year and, with incidents occurring daily, at least 80 people have been killed so far this year.

In Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, no one was surprised two young men were killed in broad daylight in the middle of town and that the authorities gave no explanation.

Hiding in a small wooden shack in a rice paddy on the outskirts of Banda Aceh, GAM's spokesman for the region, Ayah Sofyan, provided an account of the shooting.

"One guy was GAM, his name was Sansor. At about midday about 30 soldiers surrounded the building he was in. He shot two of the military, wounded them.

"Then he was killed. They then had a sweep in the area where it happened, in Lamreung village [a suburb in Banda Aceh]. The people run to the mosque when the military start shooting and one man, Zulkri, is shot. They shoot him dead. So they put Zulkri with the other victim and claim he is GAM as well by leaving a weapon with the body."

The story is delivered in a deadpan way, as if he is surprised to be asked about the incident. The minders around the spokesman talk nervously on their mobile phones and he constantly glances at them for any indication that we might be interrupted by the military. No one is dressed in the military clothes they are sometimes photographed in, and there are no weapons in sight.

The impression is that the situation is not very secure and they live under the noses of the Indonesian military in the capital and in the towns, not out in strong, rebel-controlled areas as they once did.

"The Indonesian Government makes statements saying the situation in Aceh is safe for business now they have put more troops here but the reality is the killing still continues," he said.

"This morning we found a body near the bridge 400m from here. We don't know who it is. It is a civilian but they say it is one of us. They always do."



Aceh, on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, has always resisted outside rule. When Arabic traders arrived in the mid 16th-century, the region became the first part of what is now Indonesia to be converted to Islam, and adherents follow the more fundamentalist Sunni Islam.

The Acehnese fought campaigns against the Javanese, the Dutch and the Japanese in the Second World War. The province again resisted the Dutch in 1945, as they tried to reassert colonial control after Indonesian independence was declared. Resentment grew with Indonesian attempts to bring the province under control and exploit its oil and gas reserves.

In 1956, when CIA-backed generals in Sumatra rebelled against the perceived threat of a left-leaning President Sukarno, Aceh sided with them.

GAM has been fighting since 1976, when Hasan di Tiro, a descendant of an Aceh sultan exiled by the Dutch in 1908, called for a reinstatement of the Islamic sultanate. The movement believes it was promised by Sukarno but rejected by his successor, Suharto.

In 1989, Suharto declared Aceh a "military operations area" and 10,000 civilians are believed to have been killed before the status was lifted following the President's downfall in 1998.

The military were partially withdrawn following the discovery of mass graves that year.

But in 1999 there were four separate massacres, in May, July and October. In each case, between 40 and 60 civilians were killed by the military and the police.

Despite a so-called ceasefire in 2000, at least 1000 people were killed, including 65 in one day in November at a pro-referendum rally.

The violence included the assassination of pro-independence figures, GAM leaders, human rights activists and Islamic leaders as the peace talks broke down. In the final months of last year, the military were re-deployed to Aceh in higher numbers than ever before.

Late last month, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri told military leaders and thousands of troops in Jakarta that they need not worry about violating human rights.

Speaking at a military parade, she said: "Suddenly we are aware of the need of a force to protect our beloved nation and motherland from breaking up."

She told them to respect the law in the course of their duty. "With that as your guide, you can do your duty without worrying about being involved in human rights abuses. Do everything without doubts."

Indonesian troops in Aceh will now say they are fighting terrorists, in line with the new international rhetoric. Megawati's support for the United States-led campaign in Afghanistan has resulted in the inclusion of the Indonesian military in a counter-terrorism training programme for officers in Southeast Asian armies.

When Congress approved the $US21 million ($49.6 million) programme last month, it sidestepped restrictions on funding to the Indonesian military that had been imposed because of human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

"The Pacific Command is ready to work with the TNI [Indonesian armed forces] now in multilateral missions such as the campaign against terrorism, peacekeeping exercises, and mutual support," US Pacific fleet commander Admiral Dennis Blair told Indonesian business and military leaders in Jakarta in November.

"We are ready to resume the full range of bilateral cooperation when the military reforms which the TNI is undertaking reach maturity."

The US need for support from the most populous Muslim country in the world has provided an unexpected boost to TNI efforts in Aceh.

Ayah Sofyan claims GAM has 25,000 soldiers in all of Aceh divided into 10 commands, but they are not all armed and one suspects many are living as civilians. Their weapons are mainly M16s and AK47s bought by their Acehnese supporters in Malaysia and Thailand.

He freely admits that around 2000 received training in Libya in the 1980s and they are now fighting the TNI in Aceh and training others.

Last April, President Abdurrahman Wahid issued a decree authorising the Army to move back into the province, and GAM members have been targeted in a campaign to wipe them out.

Human rights workers in Aceh say there are now between 50,000 and 60,000 TNI and Indonesian police in the province. GAM says it is nearer to 70,000. Tanks and armoured cars are now deployed on the major roads and roadblocks are everywhere.

Ayah Sofyan admits the TNI's aggressive tactics are working, but claims he has lost only about 30 men in the past two years.

"The military claim many of the victims are GAM but we cannot believe this because the military claim every ordinary civilian they kill is GAM. They put bullets in the pockets of the bodies or guns and claim they are GAM. Nothing changes with more troops here except the people are afraid, they are traumatised, they cannot do anything. We are not attacking. We are just trying to survive."

About 112km south of Banda Aceh is the town of Sigli, a former GAM stronghold. Nowadays, the market is crawling with Indonesian troops.

Every few kilometres on the only road back to the capital TNI and Brimob (police mobile brigade) roadblocks demand bribes from every passing vehicle. Any attempt to take photos or question those manning the roadblocks is answered by the cocking of weapons.

Feature: Indonesia

CIA World Factbook: Indonesia (with map)

Dept. of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia

Antara news agency

Indonesian Observer

The Jakarta Post

UN Transitional Administration in E Timor

East Timor Action Network