Aceh survivors squeezed by conflict, dream of peace
Aceh survivors squeezed by conflict, dream of peace
Dan Eaton, Krueng Raya/Reuters
Fearful of saying the name of the Free Aceh Movement rebels out loud, a young woman scribbles its short form, GAM, on a scrap of paper as she warily eyes the tape recorder in front of her.
"They shot him," she says, pausing to jab at where she has written the three letters, describing a recent shooting incident in the coastal area of Krueng Raya, some 50 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.
"He was just an innocent student from Banda Aceh, invited to this village by his friend," she said. Other residents said two people were killed -- the student and a local village boy.
The motive for the attack was unclear, they said.
Indeed, in this sweltering tent village of tsunami survivors on the tip of Sumatra island, there is a reluctance to openly discuss peace talks half a world away in snow-bound Finland between exiled rebel leaders and the government, aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running insurgencies.
The brutal three decades of separatist struggle in oil and resource-rich Aceh has claimed more than 12,000 lives, many of them civilians. Rights groups accuse both the Indonesian armed forces and GAM of grave human rights abuses.
Both sides acknowledge abuses have occurred in the long years of fighting, but deny any systematic rights violations.
The woman, who lost her home and several family members in the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami that left more than 160,000 Acehnese dead or missing and helped push the government and rebels back to the negotiating table, said GAM would sometimes force those regarded as "rich people" to give them money.
Looking at her tent and those around it, pitched in the forest above a coastal plain studded with splintered tree stumps and the crumpled foundations of homes destroyed by the waves, the word "rich" seems completely out of place.
She, and other villagers, said government soldiers also demanded money from survivors who have set up stalls down by the harbor, where a ferry departs daily for an island off the coast.
"We felt safer before they came here," she says, scribbling the word "Army" in English on the paper in front of her and tapping it. "The people who are selling in the harbor must pay 2,000 rupiah ($0.20) every day," she said.
Another Acehnese woman listening in puts it more plainly: "There are good people in GAM and bad people. These things happen more often since the tsunami than before. People hate the bad GAM, but they hate the army more."
But most people approached in this seaside district were unaware of the third round of peace talks since the tsunami, which ended on Saturday with both sides upbeat.
"I don't know about the talks. We want peace, but we also want freedom. Many conditions here will improve if we are free. I want to be rich. We have the natural resources," said snack vendor Tarmizi, 25.
The two sides reached broad agreement in Helsinki on topics like taxation, excise duties, distribution of wealth and oil revenues and agreed to revisit the issues of self-government and security later.
"We start from now, we will refrain our forces and this is a new start," Indonesian Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin told a news conference in Helsinki late on Saturday.