Acehnese can only dream of a peaceful fasting month

Nani Farida and Teuku Agam Muzakir, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Lhokseumawe

Ismiati has been longing for an evening prayer to be held in the mosque after the breaking of the fast meal, along with neighbors in her remote hamlet in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

But prolonged violence which is now prevailing in the westernmost province has again dashed her dream of a peaceful Ramadhan.

"My only wish is no longer hearing the noisy gunslinging, so that we can pray at the Meunasah," the 20-year-old girl said on Tuesday. Meunasah is the Acehnese word for mosque.

She said she was forced to stay home when the dusk fell during the fasting month last year. This year nothing has changed.

Ismiati lives in Tiba hamlet in Mutiara Pidie district, some 12 kilometers east of Sigli. Gunfights have frequently erupted there even before the martial law was imposed in Aceh on May 19, which has allowed for a major offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

"Both the military and GAM are fond of fighting each other," Ismiati grumbled.

The Tiba hamlet has been known as a GAM stronghold, prompting the Indonesian Military (TNI) to launch operations to hunt down the rebels there.

"Sometimes we ate our breaking of the fast meal in anxiety, as we knew well that government troops would comb our hamlet to find the rebels," she said.

Ismiati is just one of thousands, perhaps millions, Acehnese who miss the luxury of attending evening prayers during the Ramadhan, as other Muslims in most part of the country do.

Muslims account for more than 90 percent of the Aceh population of 4.2 million. The province has applied sharia following the enforcement of the special autonomy for the natural resource-rich province in 2001.

For Nuraini, a resident of Gampong Lhang subdistrict in Pidie, security does not matter a lot to her willingness to observe the fasting month.

"We will observe Ramadhan as we did in the previous years. God willing nothing bad will happen to us during the holy month," the 54-year-old housewife said.

She and her family had always attended the evening prayer in a mosque located one kilometer away from her home during the fasting month last year she added.

"Sometimes we heard the staccato of firearms along our way to the mosque. We then confined ourselves to our home and prayed together," she recalled.

Nuraini said the martial law would not change her family's habit a lot during Ramadhan.

She passed the first day of the fasting month safely and would complete the religious duties and celebrate Idul Fitri with her family, relatives and neighbors.

A Javanese migrant, Wignyo, who lives in Sungai Yu district in East Aceh expressed hopes that the ongoing fasting month would proceed peacefully.

"Gunfights used to mark the fasting month, but now many TNI soldiers have built security posts in our residential area. I hope this will bring peace to us throughout Ramadhan," he said.

The martial law administrator in Aceh Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya has said the military operation would continue during Ramadhan in a bid to maintain peace and security in the province during the holy month.

Visiting Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on Tuesday GAM members to take the momentum of Ramadhan, to surrender and give up their secessionist movement.

"I sincerely ask GAM members for the sake of the holy month to recognize to the unitary state of Indonesia. It's better late than never. We always open up the opportunity of GAM to rejoin the republic," Susilo said on the sidelines of the Youth Pledge commemoration in Peureulak, East Aceh.

Susilo said the central government was taking into consideration the mounting demand from the Acehnese to extend the military operation, rather than foreign parties which were pushing for an end to the major offensive.

"The critics do not know what is happening in Aceh. Only the Acehnese know it better, so we listen to them," Susilo said.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's cabinet will evaluate the implementation of the military operation next week and decide whether the operation will go on under the martial law or a new status.

Martial law -- Page 2