Why GAM should be held accountable<\/p>\n
Kirsten E. Schulze
\nThe Straits Times
\nAsia News Network
\nSingapore<\/p>\n
When the top three leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) --
\nHassan Tiro, Zaini Abdullah and Malik Mahmood -- were taken into
\ncustody last week on suspicion of \"grave breaches of
\ninternational law\", a number of pro-independence supporters,
\nAcehnese activists, human rights groups and liberal academics
\nvoiced their protest.<\/p>\n
The detention had only come about because of pressure from
\nJakarta, they asserted. Or even worse, it was pandering to
\nWashington's \"war on terror\". GAM was clearly being victimized,
\nthey claimed.<\/p>\n
After all, it is a legitimate national liberation movement
\nrepresenting people who had suffered for decades. Look at Aceh's
\ntortured history. One academic even went on to say that GAM
\nleaders had always respected international conventions and rules
\nof military engagement.<\/p>\n
Aceh has indeed had a tortured history. Since the beginning of
\nthe conflict in 1976, Acehnese have suffered from torture,
\nkidnappings, rapes and murder. But Aceh is not a one-sided
\nconflict, and GAM is far from fighting an honorable war.<\/p>\n
Over the past year alone GAM has taken some 300 civilians
\nhostage. These kidnappings included RCTI television journalist
\nErsa Siregar, cameraman Ferry Santoro and their driver Rahmatsyah
\non June 29 last year. Their crime? Freedom of expression. Or, as
\nGAM saw it, biased reporting.<\/p>\n
For months their journalist colleagues demonstrated against
\nthese kidnappings and family members pleaded with GAM to release
\nthem. All to no avail. Rahmatsyah was rescued six months later in
\nDecember after a gunfight between GAM and Indonesian troops. Ersa
\nSiregar was killed later that month during a shootout. Ferry
\nSantoro, along with 22 other hostages, was released on May 17.<\/p>\n
Alongside the RCTI journalists, the wives of two air force
\nofficers, Cut Safrida and Cut Soraya, were also abducted. Cut
\nSoraya was then two months pregnant. But even after the pregnancy
\nbecame obvious, GAM did not release her. At eight months, the
\nbaby was stillborn. Cut Soraya was still hemorrhaging when she
\nand her sister were rescued by Indonesian troops a month later.<\/p>\n
Family members of the Indonesian security forces and
\njournalists have not been the only non-combatants targeted by
\nGAM. Civil servants, local politicians, legislators, village
\nheads and teachers have all been victims of GAM intimidation,
\nshootings and kidnappings -- often for ransom.<\/p>\n
GAM has burnt local government facilities, schools and health
\ncenters. It has extorted from contractors and companies. In 2001,
\nit severed ExxonMobil's pipelines, forcing the corporation to
\nshut down and evacuate its workers.<\/p>\n
The movement has also systematically terrorized Javanese
\nmigrants living in Aceh. These Javanese had left their home towns
\nin search of better prospects for their families. In the eyes of
\nGAM, however, they represent the \"Javanese neo-colonial\"
\ngovernment in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
The first Javanese migrants arrived a century ago with the
\nDutch to work on coffee plantations. After the discovery of
\nnatural gas in 1971, more came to work in and around the growing
\nindustrial complex in Lhokseumawe. Others came through government
\ntransmigration schemes.<\/p>\n
GAM stepped up its attacks on the Javanese in 1999, extorting
\nmoney from them, burning their houses and terrorizing them into
\nleaving. Some 120,000 people who have fled Aceh are today living
\nin refugee camps in neighboring North Sumatra. They are virtually
\nall Javanese.<\/p>\n
The movement has constantly appealed to the United Nations and
\nthe international community for support in its struggle for
\nAcehnese independence. However, it is violating the same
\ninternational law it seeks to invoke in pursuit of its aims.<\/p>\n
It is not an organization that adheres to rules of engagement
\nor to the Geneva Conventions. It is not an organization that
\nrespects the rights of non-combatants. It has shown little
\ntolerance for dissenting views.<\/p>\n
Teachers have been shot for teaching the Indonesian curriculum
\ninstead of GAM-tailored history. Politicians have been shot
\nbecause they saw merit in autonomy rather than independence.
\nVillage heads have been shot for raising the Indonesian flag.<\/p>\n
Murder in the name of freedom is still murder. It is time that
\nliberation movements, just like states and the military, are held
\naccountable for their actions. Not because of political pressure
\nfrom the governments fighting them or because it conveniently
\nfits into the \"war on terror\" but because organizations like GAM
\nhave been violating international law for far too long.<\/p>\n
The writer is a senior lecturer in International History at
\nthe London School of Economics and author of The Free Aceh
\nMovement (GAM): Anatomy Of A Separatist Organization.<\/p>",
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