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..