For aggrieved Aceh people Jakarta has not changed

Aguswandi, Post Graduate Student, International Politics, London Metropolitan University, agus_smur@hotmail.com

The current military operation in Aceh, now almost four weeks old, shows one thing to the Acehnese -- that Jakarta has not changed.

The military approach has constantly been taken in Aceh. For the Acehnese, Jakarta under President Megawati Soekarnoputri is the same as Jakarta under the Soeharto regime, under B.J. Habibie and under Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) -- slightly different but not very different; many changes have been promised, but in reality, nothing has changed significantly.

In Aceh today, there are raids and road blocks. Civilians are killed, people arrested, schools have been burned and human rights activists cannot continue their work. There is no freedom of expression. Many residents are becoming internally displaced persons. The Indonesian Military (TNI) is everywhere and running the province. Information is restricted. All of this, in the name of eliminating the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

But what is new for the Acehnese? In the previous political eras and regimes, civilians were killed, road blocks were also prominent and freedom of expression did not exist. People also fled their villages. Military troops were deployed en masse and ruled Aceh. All of this was also in the name of destroying GAM.

So what has changed?

Nothing -- except the name of the operation. Under Soeharto's New Order regime, it was called Jaring Merah, or the Red Net Operation, and the period of the military operation was commonly known as DOM. Under Habibie, the operation was called the Wibawa operation, and even Gus Dur authorized an operation under Presidential Instruction No. IV/2000. Now, in the Megawati era, it is a "military emergency".

But the operation today is the same as the operations launched by Jakarta of bygone eras under different names. Each one is reminiscent of the one preceding it.

The Acehnese are starting to say that they are under a second DOM, or even worse. They are learning that Jakarta has not changed, and they are beginning to believe that it never will, because it seems Jakarta always takes the same militaristic path in responding to the Aceh issue.

Many in the government argue that this new operation is different, as GAM's popularity has increased. It is also said GAM controls many areas in Aceh, so the present military operation is necessary to take control of the province and wipe out GAM.

But hasn't GAM been there all along? And there have been many different military operations launched to eliminate them. So what was the purpose of all the previous military operations? Why has GAM, in fact, become more popular after so many years of operations?

GAM was supported by only 100 Acehnese or so when Hassan Tiro proclaimed Aceh as an independent state in 1976, and their popularity only grew after over 26 years of military presence in Aceh. The problem is that Jakarta does not want to admit that the past military solutions for Aceh has only produced a new generation of GAM.

It is said that the present operation is also different from those past, because this time it comes with a legitimate political stamp. For once, the military are making war in Aceh with the full consent and support of the Indonesian government.

But what difference does this make to ordinary Acehnese? Sending troops to flood Aceh was the same decision taken by Soeharto, and the same solution taken by his successors. In war- torn Aceh, nothing has changed. Once, its violent fate was decided by a single powerful person in Jakarta; now, it is the decision of many powerful people.

Still others say that the military has changed, and that this operation will be different from those in the past -- it will be selective and only target the rebels. But can we really believe this, when the police and military are still famous as "bad boys" in many other areas throughout Indonesia?

Impunity is the enduring feature of the human rights problem in Indonesia.

Currently, the official line on the situation in Aceh is fed by Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, a TNI spokesperson, who was allegedly involved in the kidnapping of activists in 1998, but never tried.

This operation, the government assures us, will respect human rights. An odd claim, when nearly all the military commanders accused of human rights violations in East Timor have proudly walked free. Some of these very same people are now allegedly orchestrating the war in Aceh, and we are being persuaded that they will respect human rights. We have learned from East Timor that they will never be held accountable for their alleged crimes.

Jakarta tells us the current operation is a success, with only a few civilian casualties. It is also reported that nearly everyone killed was connected to GAM. This is simply a one-sided claim with journalists embedded with the TNI, and human rights activists being arrested or ordered to stop their work in monitoring the situation.

The New Order regime said the same thing during the DOM era -- nothing is amiss in Aceh. Later, it was revealed that they had deceived all Indonesians. The Megawati administration is playing the same game with only a slightly more sophisticated hand. Jakarta is once again obscuring the real problems, intimidating journalists and swamping the media with its own version of the situation in Aceh.

Nevertheless, no words can hide the reality of Jakarta's militarism from the ordinary Acehnese who live in the line of fire. The ordinary Acehnese are seeing how the war has been fueled by deception. As is always the case, only half of the story about Aceh is told and as a result, the story of civilian casualties, for example, can be found only in foreign media reports.

Jakarta has consistently underestimated those ordinary people who change with the times. The Acehnese have learned that Jakarta is, and always will be, Jakarta. Strangely enough, whereas the Acehnese have changed, Jakarta remains the same -- it speaks more and listens less.

Albert Einstein once said everything in the world has changed except our thinking. If I may rephrase Einstein, I would say that everything in Aceh has changed except Jakarta's thinking.

The writer is an Acehnese human rights activist.