Activists to report plight of Acehnese to UN convention
Activists to report plight of Acehnese to UN convention
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian human rights activists pledged on Thursday to bring the plight of the Acehnese to a United Nations convention in Geneva this month, in an attempt to attract international intervention and an eventual military pullout from the troubled province.
Catholic priest Sandyawan Sumardi said representatives from the Solidarity Forum for Aceh (Forsola) would attend the meeting of the UN Human Rights Subcommission from Aug. 2 through Aug. 28.
Forsola will be represented by rights activist Ifdal Karim and three victims of the decade-long military operations in Aceh.
Forsola is a solidarity forum grouping 27 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), including Kalyanamitra women's group, the Jakarta Social Institute (ISJ), the Indonesian Environmental Forum (Walhi), the Indonesian Legal and Human Rights Association (PBHI), the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Pijar and ELSAM.
Sandyawan, an ISJ spokesman, said the activists would campaign for the establishment of "neutral zones" to facilitate the distribution of food and medical relief under the supervision of international observers.
More than 98,000 Acehnese have been displaced in a recent spate of armed conflicts between the military and separatist rebels grouped in the Free Aceh Movement. They are sheltering in squalid conditions in 26 locations, sometimes sleeping under trees and in makeshift tents.
Human rights violations in Aceh continue to be reported, despite the termination last year of the special military operation in the province.
Indonesian Police chief Gen. Roesmanhadi launched on Wednesday a new six-month long offensive to crush the movement, involving more than 6,000 Aceh Police officers and auxiliaries.
Earlier, Jakarta had deployed some 3,000 riot police and 2,000 troops to the province as reinforcements for the operation.
Sandyawan said imposition of a military operation mission was a method to politically isolate the region from national agendas.
Sandyawan was speaking on the sidelines of a two-day campaign for Aceh that includes discussions, a photo exhibition, and art happenings to commemorate the first year of the ending of the military operation in Aceh. A fund-raising event is being held on Friday evening at the Gedung Kesenian Jakarta arts center.
In the Thursday discussion, Munir, the coordinator for the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), revealed that some 230,000 people had fled their homes. The figures are over double that of the official estimate of 98,618 people who have become refugees.
Munir said the total number of refugees was equivalent to half of the population in three regencies in Aceh.
Munir warned President B.J. Habibie, Roesmanhadi and Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security Feisal Tanjung that arrogance, as shown by the shoot-on-sight order issued by Roesmanhadi on Wednesday, would not help resolve the Aceh problem.
Palestinian Ambassador Ribhi Y. Awad, who attended the discussion, expressed concerns over continued bloodshed in Aceh. He asked the participants to stand and pray for those who had died in the violence.
Awad reminded discussion participants that Islam condemned the killing of Muslims by Muslims. But he also said the separatism campaign would cause the nation to disintegrate.
Ghazali Abbas, an Aceh community leader, said that Indonesian Military chief Gen. Wiranto violated a promise made by Habibie to the Acehnese that the military would stop committing violence and atrocities in the region.
Nezar Patria, another Kontras activist, said in the discussion Aceh's problems were now on the national political agenda.
He said the two-day peaceful strike in Aceh beginning on Wednesday was a success, but predicted that more troops would be deployed in the province to pursue even the smallest community groups and that refugee numbers would increase.
In a related issue, Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid proposed on Thursday wide-ranging autonomy for Aceh as a solution to the demands made by Acehnese, but flatly rejected a referendum.
During a visit to the West Java town of Sumedang, he said the wide-ranging autonomy and special privileges package would have to be discussed further, but that it must stay in line with the 1945 Constitution. (06/43)