Disappointing the Acehnese

Disappointing the Acehnese

After having experienced a very brief spell of peace in their
troubled province since the signing of a peace agreement between
the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Dec. 9
last year, the 2.4 million Acehnese people must now prepare
themselves to face the resumption of the ferocities that they had
experienced in the last 26 years. The people's suffering will
continue for an indefinite period of time, and the parties who
are responsible for welfare of the Acehnese are busy putting the
blame on one other.

If the Acehnese people cannot see even a preliminary
demilitarization in their homeland -- as is required under the
peace accord -- how can they still dream of seeing the
implementation of elections for self-governance next year?
According to the peace accord, Aceh will have a democratically
elected government next year. But in reality their most urgent
need is to survive the violence and economic hardship of the
present. Death is still a reality that the Acehnese have to
reckon with in their daily lives.

Following the current trading of accusations between the
Indonesian Military (TNI) and GAM, people fear that the peace
accord will soon become an empty legal document. TNI leaders are
hardening their stance against the proindependence separatists,
saying that GAM is boosting its campaign for the independence of
Aceh while intensifying its military build-up, using the momentum
provided by the disarmament. GAM, for its part, is accusing the
TNI of refusing to relocate its troops to a defensive position.

As many observers see it, however, the exchange of accusations
is no more than a pretext on both sides to terminate the Henry
Dunant Center (HDC)-brokered peace accord. The TNI never believed
for a moment that GAM would voluntarily give up its dream of an
independent Aceh. As far as the TNI is concerned, Aceh is an
integral part of the unitary state of Indonesia that must be kept
at all cost. Special autonomy for Aceh is the final and only
choice for the province.

So, the five-month disarmament period that started on Feb. 9
is now facing a very serious problem -- all the more so since the
withdrawal of TNI troops is a complicated issue that affects the
vested-interests of many parties. It is regretful to see the
attitude of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government amid
all this. It is hard to refute the public impression that
Megawati has already fully entrusted the pacification of Aceh to
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Gen.
(ret.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the military top brass.

Without the President's continuous intervention to keep the
peace momentum, war and violence will soon begin again in the
rebellious province because, frankly speaking, the TNI top brass,
deep in their hearts, never believed in the need for an
agreement. We are afraid, however, that Megawati's passion for
maintaining the unitary state of Indonesia will be used by those
who oppose any peace accord with the Aceh rebels to persuade the
President to do it their way, and not to give any political space
to GAM.

Under the agreement reached in Geneva, the government has
agreed to review Law No. 18, 2001 on special autonomy for Aceh in
order to enable the people there to elect their own government,
and for GAM to participate in the government. But the current law
only allows the Acehnese to elect their own governor, but not to
choose their own legislators or to have their own political
parties. However, as the major political parties are now busy
preparing for next year's general election, it is nearly
impossible to expect them to pay much attention to Aceh, much
less to revise Law No. 18.

Like it or not, with the presence of international community
representatives in the province, Aceh has become an international
issue. The government can no longer argue that Aceh is purely a
internal Indonesian issue, and that the world cannot intervene in
its domestic affairs. Unlike in the past, when violations of
human rights could be easily hidden from the international
community, the current presence of the HDC and other
international organizations in Aceh will make it very difficult
to hide anything from the world.

We fully understand that the government does not want to
repeat the previous government's mistake of letting East Timor to
be separated from Indonesia in 1999. But if the government
continues to use only military force to tame its rebellious
citizens, as it had tried to do in East Timor, it will be only a
matter of time before the Acehnese people follow in East Timor's
path.

Unfortunately, once again, the government is barging around
like a bull in a china shop, repeating all the same mistakes it
made in East Timor.