Murder preferred to negotiation in Aceh

Herald correspondent JOHN MARTINKUS reports from Aceh in the second of a two-part series.

BANDA ACEH - On the wall of the office of the only organisation still offering legal aid to victims of Indonesian military violence is a roughly painted portrait on a cloth banner.

It is of Suprin Sulaiman, a lawyer killed by Brimob (police mobile brigade) for visiting his client, a woman who had allegedly been raped by Brimob.

He was killed early last year, along with two other human rights workers, on the way back from interviewing the woman in South Aceh. They were all members of the local security monitoring team and were supposed to be protected against violence as they monitored conditions for the ceasefire committee back in the capital.

"The situation in Aceh now is this," said Abdul Mutali, the only human rights worker in the office willing to give his name.

"Important leaders get killed. Ordinary people get killed. People with protection get killed. Human rights investigators and lawyers get killed. In general we can say that TNI [Indonesian Armed Forces] and Brimob don't like us who are involved in humanitarian work.

"I was arrested by the intelligence of the TNI in April. They said I was a member of [Aceh separatist movement] Gam. I said I was a human rights worker and they said it was the same thing.

"Again last week there was an armed clash between TNI and Gam and we tried to go to that place. The TNI kick and punch us and pulled us out of our cars when we said we had nothing to do with Gam. They said they don't care whether we are Gam or human rights workers and beat us anyway."

He says the figures for human rights abuses in the Pidie district have declined since more TNI arrived in the last four months.

"It is because we don't dare go out in the field to get reports. Because of what happens," he says, nodding towards the portrait of the dead lawyer, his former boss, on the wall. Another lawyer, who would not be named, tells how the Indonesian police forbid local people from coming to their office. "So victims of violence from Brimob have to make a report to Brimob if they want the matter investigated. They threaten the victims. They won't come and see us. They are afraid."

The lawyer talks of a situation of embedded corruption. Whether a person is found guilty or not guilty in the local courts, it still costs at least 1 million rupiah ($228) to secure release from custody. Those detained are often beaten until they admit some link to Gam.

He says the increased presence of TNI and Brimob in Pidie has led to widespread extortion of local businesses and civilians by the security forces, as well as violence. The roadblocks posted on all major roads that demand money are only the most visible form of this, he says.

One of the few people who had come in to the Aceh Coalition of Human Rights office in Banda Aceh recently was a woman whose husband, a roadside fruitseller, had been kidnapped by a group of men from his stall earlier that day. Feisal Hadi, the coordinator, told the story to illustrate how military intimidation had stopped people coming to the office. The difference with that woman was that it was the second husband she had lost to the military.

"The reality is TNI do what they like. They are still shooting civilians. Summary executions, involuntary disappearances, they are increasing.

"There is no change from Suharto, Habibie, Wahid or Megawati only an increase this year in the level of violence."

A new development was the increasing use of theft and extortion by military in plain clothes. He told the story of how a bus had recently been held up at gunpoint near the airport in Banda Aceh by armed men in civilian clothes with balaclavas. After relieving the passengers of their money, jewellery, watches and mobile phones, one of the men declared with a heavy Batak (North Sumatran) accent, "If we don't die here we shall leave rich".

With tactics honed by years of similar operations in East Timor, West Papua and here in Aceh, the Indonesian military has managed to silence those who are attempting to document their operations. No one is charged for the daily killings and no one is held accountable for the actions of the military and the police.

When talks broke down in April last year, three of the Gam negotiators were jailed by the Indonesian police they had been working with on the truce negotiations. The fourth was later killed. After 40 days in custody they were released and are still awaiting trial on charges of inciting separatism.

Their safety is supposedly guaranteed by the Swiss-based Henry Dunant Centre, which is supposed to be the mediators between them and the Indonesian Government. The centre still pays for them to be kept in what the three negotiators call "detainee status" in a luxury hotel, even though there is now no ceasefire for them to monitor. The negotiators complain bitterly about the bad faith of Megawati's Government, which, they say, has no intention of negotiating with Gam until they have tried every way of liquidating them militarily.

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