Activists condemn arrest of environmentalist in Aceh

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The arrest of Acehnese environmentalist Bestari Raden has drawn strong criticism from rights activists and a sociologist, who see the move as part of systematic attempts to silence those critical to government policies in the troubled province.

Munir, cofounder of the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said Bestari came to Aceh as a member of a government team assigned to evaluate the controversial Ladia Galaska highway project.

The team was set up based on an agreement between the Ministry of Forestry, the Coordinating Ministry for Political and Security Affairs, and the martial law administration in Aceh.

Bestari, 50, was appointed as a team member through a decree issued by the Ministry of Forestry early this month.

"Bestari had left Aceh for more than four years and returned to the province due to assignment from the government. Minister Prakosa should be responsible for Bestari's arrest," said Munir, referring to Minister for Forestry Mohammad Prakosa.

"Someone on an official assignment in a certain area should not be arrested, I suspect the arrest was staged," Munir said.

Rights activist Hendardi from the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) called the arbitrary arrest a repetition of the inhumane treatment the Acehnese people experienced during the 10-year military operation known as DOM until 1998.

"When the government launched martial law in mid-May last year, we already predicted that more victims would fall in the province," Hendardi said on Tuesday.

He said that the current political leadership had failed to win the hearts and minds of the Acehnese.

"Resolving problems in Aceh is not merely granting them sharia or welfare. The most important thing is to promote justice.

"I guess such arrests will continue and many civilians will be branded as GAM members. It will be difficult to stop because we cannot control it," Hendardi said.

Bestari was arrested in southeast Aceh last Friday, while he was visiting the area to evaluate the feasibility of the Ladia Galaska highway project that links both sides of the province.

The project, which passes through the protected Leuser National Park, home to many of the country's endangered species, has drawn strong opposition from foreign groups and local environmental activists, including Bestari.

The martial law administration in Aceh, however, said that Bestari's arrest had nothing to do with his opposition to the Ladia Galaska road project, but due to his involvement with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

TNI alleged that Bestari served as GAM's leader for the Tapak Tuan area in 2000.

GAM spokesman Sofyan Dawood said on Tuesday that Bestari was not one of his men leading GAM fighters in their war against Jakarta.

"The commander overseeing the Tapak Tuan area is Teungku Abram Muda, not someone named Bestari," Sofyan told The Jakarta Post.

Government troops are fighting against GAM in Aceh, where the rebels have been waging war for independence for the resource- rich province since 1976.

Earlier, the troops arrested a number of human rights and referendum activists, raising fears that the government was targeting anyone critical of government policies in Aceh.

Meanwhile, sociologist Otto Syamsuddin Ishak from Syiah Kuala University claimed that he was among those targeted by the military since 2000 forcing him and his family to live in exile in the United States for about one year, before returning to stay in Jakarta.

The outspoken scholar said that his family faced a series of threats from "someone who wanted to assassinate me" during that time, while "I have never been involved in a conflict with GAM nor other Acehnese," Otto said.