Civilian resistance movements take up arms against GAM

Civilian resistance movements take up arms against GAM

The Jakarta Post, Takengon, Aceh

Marsito Mertoredja, a 69-year-old retired civil servant, should
have been enjoying his pension and playing with his
grandchildren. Instead, he led villagers in a war against
Acehnese separatists that should have been fought by the
Indonesian Military (TNI).

"Life is not about having fun -- it's about taking
responsibility," he said at his house in the lakeside town of
Takengon, the capital of Central Aceh regency.

Clad in a turban and wearing red sunglasses, Marsito is the
founder of the Puja Kesumah Tanoh Gayo organization, a local
resistance movement pitted against the rebels, which was once a
forum for Javanese living in Central Aceh like himself.

From Central Aceh, the current war against the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) stands in contrast to the picture of the war that
has unfolded in the rest of the province.

"News from here has often been misleading," Marsito said.

As most Acehnese relished the December peace agreement with
GAM, Takengon was the location where a mob assaulted peace
observers earlier this year. The peace deal eventually collapsed
in May, five months after it was signed.

Reports of militia groups in Takengon came as an eerie
reminder of the TNI-supported East Timor militias, who allegedly
killed thousands when the people voted overwhelmingly for the
former province's independence in 1999.

Here in Central Aceh, affinity for the unitary state of
Indonesia is strong. Worn-out Indonesian flags decorate homes and
shops along Takengon's streets.

A few cities in Aceh offer the same sight. In GAM-controlled
regencies such as Bireuen and Pidie, flag vendors appear to be
doing a brisk trade after four weeks of military operations have
delivered more areas into the hands of the TNI.

The military operation was launched on May 19 when final
efforts in Tokyo to save the five-month-old peace accord
collapsed.

"What good was the peace deal for us?" asked Warsito, who
supports the war. "GAM personnel entered our villages with their
weapons in full view, extorting money from everyone, while the
TNI did nothing to stop them."

Just as the TNI is often accused of committing rights abuses
against civilians in GAM-controlled areas, the rebels are
notorious for doing the same thing in Central Aceh.

Marsito said the abuses began in late 1999, when an
intensified military operation flushed out the rebels from their
strongholds in Bireuen and North Aceh into Central Aceh, located
south of the two coastal regencies.

"They targeted Javanese villages, burning their houses and
killing the people," he said.

Around 30 percent of the 237,000 people in the regency are
Javanese, many of whom have settled here since the Dutch era. The
local Gayo population amounts to just 60 percent, while the
remainder consist of settlers from the surrounding Aceh areas and
other ethnic groups, such as Minangkabau of West Sumatra, Bataks
and ethnic Chinese.

At that time, his Puja Kesumah group was meant only to
represent the Javanese community in Central Aceh, but Marsito
realized that asking the police and TNI to protect the Javanese
from GAM was not enough.

Once recruited by the TNI to help fight the DI/TII rebels in
the 1950s, Marsito said he ordered the villagers to make weapons.
These were spears and swords at first, but some of the former
DI/TII rebels in Central Aceh made use of their experience to
produce homemade guns and rifles.

He set up Puja Kesumah, comprising villagers, to protect their
homes, requiring them to hold night vigils regularly.

The villagers' greatest asset had to be their sheer number,
Marsito explained.

He said that hundreds could be called upon to confront the
handful of rebels who often raided their villages. Over time, GAM
avoided the Javanese villagers and turned their attention to
other communities, including the local Gayo community, to seek
money.

"I told other villages that sought help to form their own Puja
Kesumah," he said.

According to him, Puja Kesumah has thousands of members. The
forum's name now means "praising peace in the land of Gayo",
dissolving any reference to the Javanese community it once
represented.

Central Aceh Military Command chief Lt. Col. Amrin
acknowledged the effectiveness of the local resistance movement.

"It really does help us in our job," he said.

Asked about TNI and the movements' relationship, he said it
was restricted to providing them moral support.

"They may give us information on GAM members when they see
them," he said, but the rest was left up to the soldiers.