Human Rights Violations in Aceh The cycle of violence continues
Ridwan was just 14 years old when his father was taken away by the Indonesian special command forces (Kopassus), in March 1991. While searching for his father over the next three days, Ridwan estimates he saw 20 corpses.
��Each day we would hear of more bodies � we would go immediately to see if it was my father � we would find them on the side of the road, in plantations and in other places,�� he said.
On the third day, they found his father�s body in a plantation. He had been shot in the head and there was a 15cm nail through his skull. His arms and legs had been cut and his hands were swollen from having been tied up.
When Kopassus troops came to their home a week later seeking documents, they threw Ridwan to the ground and smashed his hand with a stone for trying to help his mother who only spoke Acehnese.
Ridwan and his family are among thousands of people in the province of Aceh, North Sumatra, who have suffered terrible human rights violations during the course of counter-insurgency operations by the Indonesian security forces against the pro-independence armed opposition group, Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM), the Free Aceh Movement. Several thousand civilians are believed to have been unlawfully killed between 1989 and 1998.
Although recent government initiatives to investigate past human rights violations have raised hopes that impunity may finally be tackled, the cycle of violence continues. A whole generation of young Acehnese has been affected. Thousands of children whose parents have been killed or have ��disappeared�� continue to be obstructed in their attempt to find out the fate of their loved ones now, and even risk becoming victims themselves.
Women Also Affected
Women have also been among the thousands of victims of extrajudicial execution, ��disappearance��, arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment by the security forces in the Indonesian province of Aceh over the last ten years. Serious human rights violations, including rape and other forms of sexual abuse of women and girls, continue to be carried out by the security forces as a form of intimidation and as punishment for suspected support for GAM. GAM has also been responsible for committing human rights abuses against women in Aceh.
There are no precise figures for the total number of women who have suffered human rights violations in the province, including gender-specific violations such as rape. In August 1998, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia, Komnas HAM) reported that it had received details of 102 cases of rape during the course of its investigations into human rights violations committed between 1989-98. However, rape in Aceh, in common with situations elsewhere, tends to be under reported. The shame associated with rape, fear of reprisals and the absence of institutional mechanisms to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice all act as deterrents to reporting such violations.
In a situation where human rights abuses both by the security forces and GAM against the civilian population are widespread, humanitarian workers and human rights defenders face particular risks in their work. At the very least they must endure the ��stop and search�� operations by the security forces which take place at frequent intervals along roads, fear of inadvertently being caught in an exchange of gunfire and other risks associated with working in an area of armed conflict. Since early 2000, however, there have been worrying signs of increased attacks on civilians, in particular human rights defenders, lawyers, humanitarian workers, student activists and journalists. Activist student groups that have set up centres throughout the region for monitoring human rights violations, are also at particular risk of intimidation and attack. There are also reports of cases of harassment and intimidation of activists by GAM.
As is the case generally in Indonesia, investigations into human rights violations in Aceh, including those against human rights defenders and other activists, are rarely carried out. With few exceptions, perpetrators are not brought to justice.
Background
Aceh is situated in the northernmost part of the island of Sumatra, about 1,000 miles from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta. It has a population of around three-and-a-half million people. The Acehnese are often regarded as having a long tradition of resistance to domination by outside authorities. Over the past quarter of a century dissatisfaction with Indonesian rule has been largely rooted in economic grievances related to inequalities in the distribution of revenues drawn from the province�s extensive natural resources. Opposition to the Indonesian government has been further fuelled by the repressive policies employed by the security forces in Aceh.
In December 1976, the recently formed armed opposition movement, GAM, declared Aceh to be an independent state. The government responded with force and GAM was largely destroyed within a few years. However, in 1989 GAM re-emerged and carried out a number of attacks against police and military installations which led to renewed military operations in the province.
Counter-insurgency operations by the Indonesian security forces resulted in gross human rights violations, a large number of which were committed against the civilian population. Amnesty International estimates that between 1989 and 1993, two thousand civilians, including children and the very elderly, were unlawfully killed and at least 1,000 people were arbitrarily arrested. Many were held in incommunicado detention and subjected to torture or ill-treatment. Although the levels of violations declined in the following years, regular reports of unlawful killings, ��disappearances��, arbitrary arrest and torture continued to be received.
Thirty-two years of authoritarian rule in Indonesia ended in May 1998 when former President Suharto was forced to resign in the face of massive popular opposition. The fall of the Suharto government heralded a new era of reform leading to expectations for change throughout Indonesia, including in Aceh.
Expectations for Change
A number of government statements and initiatives provided some basis for optimism. On 7 August 1998, General Wiranto, the Armed Forces Commander at the time, offered an apology for the actions of members of the armed forces in Aceh. He also announced that Aceh�s status as a military operations area (Daerah Operasi Militer - DOM) would be lifted and that all non-organic troops would be withdrawn. A number of investigations into human rights violations during the previous ten years were also initiated, bringing hope to victims and their families that justice would be done.
Hope proved to be short lived. At the end of 1998 the human rights situation began to deteriorate again following a number of attacks on military and police personnel and installations in December. Despite doubts about who was responsible, the authorities blamed the attacks on GAM and responded by launching Operasi Wibawa 99 (Operation Authority 1999) in early January 1999, during which scores of people were arrested and dozens killed.
This has been followed by a series of further operations throughout 1999 and 2000. Although these have been headed by the police, they differ little from earlier military operations in that they have been characterized by serious and widespread human rights violations against civilians. The nature of the violations are strikingly similar to those perpetrated in the early 1990s and include unlawful killings, ��disappearances�� and arbitrary detention. Figures are difficult to determine with any degree of accuracy, but it is estimated that hundreds of people have been unlawfully killed over the past two years. Torture and ill-treatment is routine both inside and outside police or military custody as a means to extract confessions or as a form of punishment or intimidation. Although scores of alleged GAM members have been detained in the past two years, few cases have ever come to trial.
Referendum and Ceasefire
Growing levels of repression are widely seen to have contributed to increased levels of support for a referendum on Aceh�s political future among the population of Aceh. Pressure in support of a referendum reached its height in late 1998 when, on 8 November 1999, over one million people attended a pro-referendum rally in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital. A second pro-referendum rally took place on 10-11 November 2000. However, the security forces blocked people from travelling to Banda Aceh to participate including by opening fire on convoys of vehicles. The total number of people killed remains unconfirmed but is thought to be over 20.
In the meantime, Abdurahman Wahid�s government engaged in initiatives towards entering into a dialogue with GAM. In May 2000 an accord was signed under which both parties agreed to halt offensive operations to allow the distribution of humanitarian aid and prepare the ground for further negotiations on ending the conflict. Known as the �Joint Understanding on Humanitarian Pause for Aceh�, it came into force on 2 June 2000 for a period of three months. The agreement initially appeared to result in a decrease in the level of human rights violations. However, within a matter of weeks reported incidents of abuses by both the security forces and GAM escalated once again.
On 24 September 2000 the agreement was extended by an additional three months, until 15 January 2001. At the same time both sides agreed to take all necessary measures to improve the effectiveness of the ��humanitarian pause�� and reconfirmed their commitment to the early and safe return of internally displaced persons (IDPs), to prevent any new exodus and to ensure the safety of humanitarian workers.
Amnesty International welcomed the acknowledgment by both sides of the importance of measures to protect those working with IDPs and other victims of human rights violations in Aceh. However, despite these commitments, violations have continued, causing further internal displacement, and cases of violations against human rights defenders, humanitarian workers and other activists have also been reported since the extension of the agreement. An essential component of effective protection must be that those suspected of responsibility for carrying out violations against humanitarian and human rights activists are brought to justice.
GAM Abuses
Members of GAM have also been responsible for human rights abuses in Aceh both before and after 1998. Information on GAM abuses is often difficult to verify, and is further confused by the many reported cases of abuses which are attributed by the authorities and in the media to unknown third parties. However, there are credible reports of unlawful killings, abductions and torture being carried out by GAM members against both members of the security forces and civilians. Other victims have included alleged military informers and people suspected by GAM of being criminals. There are also credible reports of threats, intimidation and other abuses by GAM against local government officials, religious officials, humanitarian workers and others.
GAM has also been responsible for intimidating and threatening activists. One humanitarian group in Banda Aceh reported in May 2000 that its members had been threatened with death and told that their office would be bombed by individuals who had identified themselves as members of GAM. Since then, several of the humanitarian group�s staff and volunteers have received threats by letter and telephone. Along with other groups, the organization has appeared on blacklists believed to be circulated by GAM to village heads and other local officials in a number of districts together with instructions forbidding them from accepting assistance from these organizations.
GAM is also reported to be responsible for widespread destruction of government buildings, including schools, and has pressurised government employees to stay away from work so that large parts of the government administration are no longer functioning. Extortion is reported to be carried out by the group on a wide scale and is backed up by threats and intimidation.
The ��humanitarian pause�� is regarded by some observers as having provided GAM with an opportunity to regroup. Recruitment activity, including recruitment of children, is said by some observers to have intensified since the implementation of the accord. GAM is also said to be extending its influence at village-level and in some areas has taken over local government functions, including the administration of justice.
Conclusion
Despite encouraging indications that Indonesia�s new administration under President Megawati will continue with the reform process, the human rights situation in the country remains fragile. In the absence of fundamental institutional and legal reforms, human rights violations continue to go unpunished and perpetrators continue to evade justice.
Amnesty International (AI) calls on both the Indonesian government and GAM to end the violence against civilians and to take measures to prevent further human rights violations and to ensure the protection of human rights defenders and other activists in Aceh.
Who or what is GAM? How does it operate? Reports in the Indonesian media suggest that there are two distinct factions.
The 'original group', led by Hasan Tiro (who resides in Sweden), describes itself within Aceh/Indonesia as GAM/AGAM (Angkatan Gerakan Aceh Merdeka). Abroad this faction describes itself as the ASNLF (Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front), laying claim not only to the whole of Aceh, but also to some of the rest of Sumatra.
The other faction is the MP-GAM (Majelis Peme-rintahan Gerakan Aceh Merdeka - Free Aceh Movement Government Council), led by Don Zulfahri, alias Don Malindo, who is reportedly based in Thailand, and Dr. Husaini Hasan (formerly a member of Hasan Tiro's group), domiciled in Sweden.
Until recently, Hasan Tiro's faction denounced any compromise with the Indonesian government. However, in January 2000, Baharuddin Lopa, the then Indonesian Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, met with GAM's high commander in Aceh, Abdullah Syafi'ie, in Banda Aceh for talks. The MP-GAM have throughout appeared more willing to engage in talks with the Indonesian government and to favour more diplomatic approaches to resolving the problem. However, this group is also considered to be more uncompromising in its views.
Potentially the most important distinction between the two lies in their respective concepts of what kind of state the newly independent country should have. Hasan Tiro's faction emphasises that Aceh should be restored as a Sultanate, whilst the MP-GAM favour the formation of an Islamic Democracy.
Source: A Reign of Terror. Human Rights Violations in Aceh, 1998-2000, Surrey: TAPOL, The Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.
Acehnese proudly remember Sultan Iskandar Muda (ruled 1607-36), who made Aceh the most powerful state in the region. Europeans began seriously to press in during the imperialistic nineteenth century. In 1873 the Dutch launched a costly and bloody war against Aceh. Despite superior arms, it took them four decades to win effective control against Acehnese guerrilla tactics.
When Indonesia proclaimed its independence in 1945, Acehnese leaders lent crucial support. But they were disappointed that Jakarta gave Islam and themselves, far less importance than they had hoped. Aceh joined a major regional rebellion in 1953. Fighting wound down after the Acehnese won an agreement with Jakarta in 1959 that extended autonomy to Aceh.
In 1971 Mobil Oil discovered massive natural gas reserves in North Aceh. The Lhokseumawe liquid natural gas plant became the biggest in the world, suppying 30 per cent of Indonesia�s oil and gas exports. Industries mushroomed around it, and with it pollution and social disruption.
However, the Acehnese were well aware there was little in it for them. This was perhaps the main reason for the resurgence in 1989 of an Acehnese seccessionist movement that had been led for years by Hasan di Tiro from his exile in Stockholm. The military crackdown that followed left deep wounds in Acehnese society that are only now being exposed.
Source: IRIP News Service
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