Experts call for an end to Aceh military operation

Experts call for an end to Aceh military operation

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The military offensive to curb the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has
resulted in rampant violations of the Geneva Convention on the
protection of civilians in times of war, experts say.

They called on the government on Tuesday to halt the security
operation in the country's westernmost province.

Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS) said on Tuesday that since the government launched
the joint operation in Aceh on May 19, it had failed to uphold
the Geneva Convention in the protection of war victims.

"Poor intelligence work has resulted in the military mistaking
civilians for GAM members," Kusnanto told a seminar on the
commemoration of the Geneva Convention here.

Member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM)
M.M. Billah concurred, saying that the ongoing military offensive
in the resource-rich province had led to gross violations of
human rights.

"A team set up by Komnas HAM to probe possible human rights
violations in Aceh has collected evidence that extra judicial
punishment, mass graves, killing of non-combatants, rape and
sexual abuse have indeed taken place during the military
operation," he said, adding that all of that constituted a
violation of basic humanitarian law.

Kusnanto cited the low number of firearms seized from alleged
GAM members compared to the total number of captured GAM members
as an example of how the military had wrongly perceived civilians
as combatants.

"If the military manages to seize only 200 firearms, but the
number of captured GAM members reaches almost 2,000, I suspect
that there are many civilians who have been treated as rebels,"
he said.

He was quick to add that there were a number of civilians and
suspected GAM members who had to undergo questioning without the
presence of legal counselors, which constituted a violation of
Article 3 of Protocol II of the 1977 Geneva Convention.

He also branded the reregistration of civil servants and the
reissuing of ID cards for the Acehnese people as a violation of
the ban on collective punishment of civilians in the convention.

Kusnanto said after the first three months of the military
campaign, it was high time the government decided that the next
three months would be the last for the use of military force.

"Before the six month period is over, President Megawati
Soekarnoputri should have come up with an appropriate exit
strategy from the Aceh military operation," he said.

He said that the withdrawal of around 40,000 troops from Aceh
would also be very helpful for the government to maintain
security in Java and other regions in the country ahead of the
coming general elections.

Indonesia is scheduled to hold the legislative elections on
April 5, and presidential elections in August 2004.

Officials originally suggested that the offensive could be
wound down within six months, but the military had recently
indicated a longer timeframe.

The martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya earlier
said that "depending on the supporting factors" the military
operation might even take years.

The first three months of the military operation has taken its
toll in the deaths of 49 military personnel and police, 198
civilians and 481 GAM members.

Over 500 school buildings have been torched, leaving about
40,000 students with no place to study.

"There are also school buildings which are used as military
barracks," he said.

The outspoken member of Komnas HAM said the torching and
occupation of school buildings were a violation of the Geneva
Convention which stipulates that nonmilitary facilities should
not be targets in a combat between two adversaries.

He said a Komnas HAM investigative team would soon leave for
Aceh to embark on another probe into the human rights conditions
in the troubled province.