Aceh: More than RI's internal issue

Aceh: More than RI's internal issue

By Lesley McCulloch

JAKARTA (JP): The remote province of Aceh in the northernmost
corner of Sumatra is home to almost 4 million people. It is rich
in natural resources such as oil, gas and has vast tracts of
tropical forest. It is also the location of probably the fiercest
and bloodiest conflict in Indonesia since East Timor.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been fighting for
independence since the mid 1970s, but in recent months the level
and intensity of the conflict has escalated due to a crackdown by
the Indonesian security forces. The result has been unprecedented
numbers of civilian deaths and "disappearances". Humanitarian
workers and activists have been tortured, detained and killed by
the military and police. More than three-quarters of Acehnese
activists have fled the province, and are now in "exile"
elsewhere in Indonesia or overseas.

In a country being hailed by many in the international
community as the world's newest democracy, the province of Aceh
seems far from democratic. What kind of democracy is it that
silences dissent? At worst these voices are permanently silenced,
at best they are chased from their home and families.

The response of the international community to this oppression
has been predictable. Welcoming Indonesian President Abdurrahman
Wahid in Australia recently, Prime Minister John Howard said that
he supports the actions of the Indonesian government in their
attempts to maintain the integrity of the giant archipelago.

The Australians are concerned that the break-up of their vast
neighbor and important trading partner will have serious security
and economic implications.

The British have also been silent, preferring to hide behind
the banner of the European Union who occasionally issue a
statement of "deep concern" about the problems in Aceh. However,
there is more vocal concern about a secure investment climate.
Several European companies operate in the palm oil business,
local logging companies also have European connections, and the
EU finance a conservation project in the south of Aceh which has
had the privilege of overseeing not the preservation of vast
tracks of precious forest and wildlife habitat, but the
destruction.

The problem is that they, unlike the palm oil and logging
companies, do not pay the military to protect the forests.
Indeed, they could not afford to do so. The military and police
are too busy profiting from felling the timber, a much more
lucrative venture.

Similarly in Washington D.C., President George W. Bush's
government has bowed to the domestic business lobby and has
become almost silent on the subject of human rights -- despite
maintaining an arms embargo against Indonesia since the post-
referendum troubles in East Timor.

The international community has often stated that the Aceh
problem is an internal matter and should be left to the
Indonesian government. But this is no internal matter. There are
powerful international economic interests at stake.

The United States is home to the world's largest oil company
-- ExxonMobil, who in turn has vast economic interests in Aceh.
When ExxonMobil halted production back in March because of
increasing security threats, there was an implicit nod of
approval by the US. .government that the Indonesians should take
measures to restore a secure operating environment for
ExxonMobil.

This resulted in the deployment of even more security forces
into this already over-militarized province. The U.S. government
has chosen to ignore continuing allegations that the company's
facilities have been used by the military for murder and torture,
its vehicles for transporting bodies and its machinery for
digging mass graves.

Acehnese previously employed by the company have told stories
of ExxonMobil's "common secret" of "cooperation" with local
military commanders. Indeed, the company even pay "off-salary"
incomes to local military for additional protection. A lawsuit
has been filed in the U.S. in recent days accusing the company of
complicity in human rights abuses. The suit was filed by the
International Labor Rights Fund, a U.S. organization who
represents workers in other countries.

As Exxon Mobil prepares to resume operations in Aceh, and the
U.S. EU and others continue to encourage actions which will
secure a better foreign investment climate within this cash-
strapped country, the Acehnese continue to suffer. The pattern of
increasing deployment of troops to Aceh has led, in the past, to
increasing numbers of civilian deaths, tortures, disappearances
and rape. The number of deaths this year due to the conflict is
already more than 800.

Further negotiations between GAM and Indonesian government
officials are due to begin in Geneva at the beginning of July. As
one exiled activist noted, "we do not place much hope on these
talks. The most we can hope for is a cease-fire, but during the
last "humanitarian pause" (which ended in January), even more of
my people died than previously."

A district commander of GAM said in a telephone interview that
he hoped the talks would make the government understand that the
Acehnese will not surrender their hopes for a free and peaceful
Aceh. He said "Is this too much to ask? Is it too much to ask the
international community to support the cessation of violence
towards innocent people by the Indonesian security forces? There
is no one here to see the violence and terror."

He added, "The international media like to say that GAM is
also responsible for atrocities and killings. Well, this is a
situation of violent conflict in which there are two warring
parties. People get killed. But remember, one side is motivated
by profit and prestige, the other (GAM) by justice and freedom".

The question the international community must ask itself is
whether it is willing to deny the potential that Aceh may become
the next East Timor. How many more people must die before
international media bring attention to this remote province whose
people have already suffered so much? Indeed, what price are we
who are already wealthy, prepared to make others (who are
relatively poor) pay so that we may continue to profit?

The writer is a researcher on issues of human rights and
military reform in Indonesia who is based at the University of
Tasmania in Hobart, Tasmania in Australia..