Confrontation in Aceh

Is the government heading for a confrontation with the people of Aceh? It certainly looks that way if we put two and two together. The same day that a two-day general strike, called by dozens of non-governmental organizations, began in the troubled province on Wednesday, the National Police announced in Jakarta that it was launching a massive six-month security operation against armed civilians in Aceh, with troops under specific shoot-on-sight orders against civilians who carry fire arms.

Coincidental or not, the timing of the security operation mirrors the total insensitivity on the part of officials in Jakarta toward the grievances of the Acehnese people. This same attitude has been shown by the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police in approaching the Aceh problem for the past year or so. One has to at least give them credit for consistency.

The general strike was called by Aceh NGOs in protest at the recurring violence in their province, mostly perpetrated by government troops. They are demanding no less than the withdrawal of the special troops deployed in Aceh, and for the abandonment of the military plan to establish a new command in their province. In short, they are demanding less military.

Judging by the way major towns like Banda Aceh, Lhokseumawe and Sigli were crippled on Wednesday and Thursday, the call for civil disobedience received widespread support. This was a voluntary call, and contrary to what the police claimed, most people joined because they share the grievances, and not because of threats or intimidation. The armed Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh Movement, GAM) did not initiate the strike.

Yet, instead of heeding the demands, the government is taking a tougher stance. Although the police are heading the latest security operation, the involvement of soldiers means this is essentially a revival of the dreaded Military Operations (DOM) which claimed thousands of civilian lives from 1989 to August last year when it was abandoned. It was an operation that left a deep scar among the Acehnese, and one that severely tarnished the image and reputation of the military. We have yet to see the TNI living up to its promise to punish those responsible for the atrocities perpetrated under DOM. Instead, we are seeing more atrocities being committed under various new operations.

In the meantime, TNI and the National Police continue in their denial mode. They have dismissed the general strike as of no consequence. They are refusing to recognize GAM, preferring to call it by their own self-created acronyms. Once it was called GPL (Gerakan Pengacau Liar), next it was GPK (Gerakan Pengacau Keamanan), both essentially mean security disturbance groups. Then it was called GPK-HT for GPK Hasan Tiro, so-named after the GAM leader who is in self-exile in Sweden. The latest acronym is GBPK for Gerombolan Bersenjata Pengacau Keamanan or armed security disturbance group.

The government's refusal to recognize the existence of GAM virtually rules out any channel of communication and therefore negotiation. The only thing left is for the government and the rebels to slug it out. It's a sure recipe for violence.

This was the same approach used in facing the East Timor rebel group Fretilin, before the government was forced, by the international community, to recognize its presence and to open negotiations with its leaders. One is left to wonder whether the government, especially the TNI, has not learned anything from Indonesia's botched military adventure in East Timor. At this rate, the TNI, which has already lost its authority and mandate as a sociopolitical force, is risking its authority and credibility as a defense and security force.

President B.J. Habibie, or certainly the next elected president, must take the Aceh initiative out of the TNI's hands, and place it firmly in civilian hands. In the hands of the TNI, the Aceh situation has become worse over the past year, to the extent that the military, at least in the eyes of many Acehnese, has become very much part of the problem. It can no longer be part of the solution.

Students and NGOs in Aceh, who better reflect the people's aspirations, are not making unreasonable demands: a referendum, with the possibility to vote for Aceh becoming a state within a federal system of government, and for justice and fairness. They are not demanding total separation. But if the government in Jakarta continues to use force in dealing with Aceh the way it has done over the past year, then more and more people will certainly be driven to fight for Aceh's independence.