Activists, Acehnese say no to new military operation

Activists, Acehnese say no to new military operation

Berni K. Moestafa and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government plans to announce today a new policy to quell
the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in what many fear might
revive the bloody history of military operations there and extend
the long list of human rights abuses perpetrated against the
Acehnese.

Ahead of the announcement, six bombs exploded on Saturday in a
village in Jambo Aye district, North Aceh. A GAM official said
that gunfights in the area had killed one civilian and wounded
two others.

The surge of violence over the past few months has renewed the
government's determination to crush the separatist movement it
blames for instigating armed attacks and abducting civilians.

Over the weekend, activists and Acehnese, however, urged the
government against resorting to repressive means in handling
armed resistance in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province.

"Instituting repressive means reflects the ineptitude of
Jakarta in coming up with an answer to the Aceh problem," said
Munir, a co-founder of the Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence (KONTRAS), which monitors human rights
violations in the troubled province.

There is concern that the government will impose a state of
civil emergency, which would restrict civil rights and give the
military greater control over the province.

Munir said that the security situation in Aceh had scarcely
improved, but that this did not warrant a reinstatement of the
massive military operations of the past.

"A state of civil emergency will only spread violence and
reinforce calls for independence among locals," he said.

GAM has been fighting since 1976 for an independent Aceh,
which is home to rich natural resources, notably natural gas.

Attempts to crush the group by declaring the province a
Military Operations Area, or DOM by its Indonesian acronym, in
1989 ended 10 years after with deepened resentment against the
military and greater calls for independence.

Activists and Acehnese have blamed the military for most of
the gross human rights violations perpetrated throughout the
province's 10 years as a Military Operations Area.

Human rights bodies estimate that some 10,000 have died over
the 25 years of the conflict, most of them civilians.

A spate of fresh violence, including the kidnapping of local
athletes and the crew of a ship owned by the local unit of
American oil and gas company ExxonMobil Corp., elicited a sharp
response from Jakarta.

An exchange of fire occurred last Saturday, killing one
civilian and wounding two others according to Abu Jamaika, GAM
spokesman for the Pasee region.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri has urged the military to
take resolute action, while Coordinating Minister for Political
and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono branded GAM a
terrorist organization.

Susilo, who visited Aceh last month to seek input for the new
policy, said he hoped for a peaceful solution, but later added
that more troops should be sent to Aceh. Critics said that the
sending of additional troops was tantamount to imposing a de
facto civil emergency.

"What's the guarantee that if more troops are deployed it will
be safer for us," asked Alyasa Abubakar, who heads the province's
sharia office. His office is a product of Aceh's special
autonomous status under which the province adopted Islamic law,
and which was the government's answer to some Acehnese's demands
for the introduction of sharia.

Another Acehnese, human rights activist Naimah Hasan, said she
believed the security situation had improved somewhat compared to
a year ago.

"Many people hoist the red and white banner without fear," she
said, referring to the officially organized custom of displaying
the Indonesian flag ahead of the nation's independence day on
Aug. 17.

Student activists over the weekend also protested plans for
any policy that gave the military a greater say in the province.

The Student Coalition for Peace in Aceh (Kamada) said it was
dismayed by the government's reluctance to negotiate with GAM,
saying that dialog was the only solution.

Talks have come to a halt as both sides disagree over the
preconditions set by the opposing side for negotiations.

Activist Munir said the government's favoring of the military
approach reflected the succumbing of the politicians to the
wishes of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

The debate over a civil emergency in Aceh had little to do
with the province itself, he said, citing that the security
situation generally remained the same anyway. "What's happening
is a power struggle by the military for greater political
influence in Jakarta."

Military analysts agreed that the government was treating the
TNI more as a political powerhouse than a state institution it
must regulate.

"It's (military solution) the easiest way for the government
to handle the problem, but the ones suffering from this are the
people of Aceh," said Munir.