Activists condemn arrest of environmentalist in Aceh

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.