Taking the war in stride as an embedded journalist<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Embedded journalists, what are they really good for? Can they
\nbe expected to be objective when their life is dependent on the
\nvery same people they are reporting about?<\/p>\n
Some cynics, including other journalists, deliberately
\nmispronounced it as \"in bed\" with the military.<\/p>\n
It had never crossed my mind that the Indonesian Military
\n(TNI) would let civilian reporters \"monitor\" their massive
\nmilitary operation in Aceh until I was assigned to basic
\ntraining.<\/p>\n
Dressed in military fatigues and having to listen to barked
\norders during the four-day training before setting out for Aceh,
\nI got to feel what it was like to be in the \"boots\" of the
\nsoldiers.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, there was no deliberate attempt at brainwashing to
\nthe military's cause during the four-day training at the Army
\nStrategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) at Sanggabuana Military
\ntraining camp in Karawang, West Java. It would not have worked
\nanyway.<\/p>\n
The training was intended to get us in shape for tracking
\nthrough deep jungle and remote hilly areas that are the
\nbattlegrounds of the war. For most of us, usually either stuck
\nbehind a desk writing stories and grabbing meals on the run, our
\ntrip to boot camp was much needed.<\/p>\n
My first thoughts when I heard of the military operation
\ntaking effect on May 19 was whether the government would repeat
\nthe same mistakes of the 10-year military operation in 1989-1999,
\nwidely known as DOM, to quell the same separatist group, the Free
\nAceh Movement (GAM).<\/p>\n
I also worried that it would be impossible for us to provide
\nbalanced reports, and uphold the sacred tenet of the journalistic
\ncode of ethics.<\/p>\n
However, as soon as I arrived in Aceh after finishing the
\nmilitary training, I made a new, quite shocking realization: We
\njournalists were also a target of GAM.<\/p>\n
The separatist guerrillas were on the lookout for journalists
\nembedded with the TNI, for they suspected we were there to
\nchampion the military's successes and tarnish their name.<\/p>\n
I was also shocked to find out that GAM had a list of names of
\nthe 54 journalists in the first batch sent to Aceh.<\/p>\n
Some colleagues who reportedly ran into rebels were forced to
\ndisclose the names of other embedded journalists.<\/p>\n
Other journalists who were already stationed in Aceh and were
\nnot part of the training program kept their distance from us.<\/p>\n
But the rebels and my fellow journalists could not be blamed.
\nI came to understand the situation. As part of the embedded
\nprogram, I gained benefits that were different from ordinary
\njournalists, including physical protection during gunfights.<\/p>\n
Some officers and soldiers also felt freer to discuss the
\nwhole operation strategy, including the position of their camps
\nin remote areas, with us than with the other reporters.<\/p>\n
We were even allowed to visit the camps and if we wanted too,
\nwe could stay overnight. The soldiers were assigned to pick us
\nfrom our \"barracks\" located near the military's operation command
\nheadquarters in North Aceh's Lhokseumawe should we wish to join
\nin the risky military raids on GAM bases.<\/p>\n
But questions filled in my head: What am I doing here? Am I
\nhere just to cover the number of casualties during armed clashes
\nbetween Indonesian soldiers and GAM rebels? Do I have the heart
\nto see people killing each other on the battlefield? And if I
\ndon't, how could I meet Acehnese living in the villages by myself
\nwhen GAM members were reportedly after us?<\/p>\n
For the first three days after my arrival in Aceh, I didn't
\nknow what should I be doing there. It was a real war, with all
\nthe violence and casualties, with civilians inevitably the
\ngreatest victims.<\/p>\n
People would hurry into their houses each time the military
\ntroops entered their villages in search of GAM rebels, apparently
\nstill traumatized by past abuses.<\/p>\n
Once I took part in a military patrol to a hamlet in Simpang
\nKKA area in North Aceh during which soldiers supplied logistics
\nfor troops stationed on the front line.<\/p>\n
Villagers trembled upon seeing dozens of crew-cut soldiers in
\ntheir military fatigues jumping down from their trucks.<\/p>\n
Since I was part of the convoy but was dressed in civilian
\nclothes, I thought I should try to calm them and tell them we
\nmeant no harm.<\/p>\n
I didn't know what exactly these villagers thought about me,
\nbut later on they trusted me enough to confide that they were
\ntortured by other groups of soldiers recently. The soldiers were
\ninvolved in a gunfight with GAM members and had thought that they
\nwere in hiding and aided by the villagers.<\/p>\n
After we told the commander about the complaint, he took steps
\nto request an apology and even donated army supplies to the
\nvillagers.<\/p>\n
Since the military could not give an assurance of safety for
\njournalists other than during their military operations, I
\ndecided to contact GAM commander overseeing North Aceh Abu
\nJamaika to request the rebels not launch a sweep for us.<\/p>\n
My action of contacting him does not mean that I don't have a
\nsense of nationalism and love my country. Far from it, but I also
\nwant the media to be able to make unfettered reports, before
\nthere is too much bloodshed, lives lost in vain or human rights
\nabuses.<\/p>\n
I saw for myself how people opened up to us in the villages,
\ntelling us their grievances. I think it's unfortunate that the
\nsame opportunity was not available to reporters during the East
\nTimor mayhem.<\/p>\n
Some of our colleagues were on hand for a joint operation of
\nthe Rajawali and the Cakra team from the Army's Special Force
\n(Kopassus). The raid took place at Peureulak village in North
\nAceh. Seven people, all confirmed members of GAM according to the
\nmilitary, were gunned down but unfortunately there was a 78-year-
\nold farmer who was also caught in the crossfire.<\/p>\n
His wife cried as his body was pulled from the river, and the
\nhundreds of thousands of rupiah donated by the troops could not
\nassuage her grief.<\/p>\n
If there were no journalists around, people would not have
\nread about the one civilian victim among the rebel toll.<\/p>\n
Every life counts, whether it is for the military, GAM or for
\nus.<\/p>\n
The military operation is ongoing, I am now back in Jakarta
\nand other journalists are embedded with the military. I hope that
\npeople will realize that they are there to do their job and doing
\ntheir best to maintain their journalistic ethics.<\/p>\n
And, in doing so, by reporting on this conflict, they are also
\nputting the story of the people first. When all is said and done,
\nthat is what counts.<\/p>",
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