Free Fery

A few days after the death of RCTI television journalist Ersa Siregar, Aceh's martial law administrator and military commander announced that anyone was welcome to be a facilitator for the release of some 100 civilian hostages held by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Thank you very much, Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya, this is a welcome turnaround from the martial law administration's earlier policy that no non-governmental party, even international humanitarian organizations, could operate in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. (The first good news in early December was that the International Red Cross Committee, or the ICRC, officially reopened its office in Banda Aceh.)

We can only wonder and regret, however, that it took the death of a civilian who made headlines just because he was a journalist -- and a fine one at that -- for the military to open the doors to Aceh in welcoming any party wishing to assist in the hostages' release.

Without doubt, the change in policy has mainly come about because another media professional, Ersa's RCTI colleague cameraman Fery Santoro, is still in the hands of GAM, and neither of the disputing parties want another headline death on their hands.

Not even the presence of a pregnant woman among the hostages -- a wife of a military officer and who is expected to go into labor soon -- has been able to move the hearts of either parties to reach an agreement to secure the civilians' release.

Organizations such as the Indonesian Red Cross and the ICRC have repeatedly said they were ready to help with the release of hostages, yet GAM and the Indonesian Military (TNI) have both been arguing for months on the conditions of release. The impression is that they have been thinking selfishly about their possible losses or gains in blatant disregard of the Geneva Convention, which says that warring parties have the ultimate responsibility to protect civilians caught in an armed conflict.

The TNI has woken up, it seems, following the death of Ersa, who it said was a victim of a military bullet in a crossfire on Dec. 29. Spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin has even said that the TNI will now try harder to protect journalists. GAM has also been desperate to convey its condolences and apologies, all the while blaming the TNI for "killing" Ersa in cold blood.

RCTI, along with local and international journalist associations, is demanding an independent investigation into Ersa's death, while journalists across the country are also demanding that Fery be released immediately and returned safely to his family.

An investigation should uncover -- among other details -- how civilians, including local bureaucrats, were kept as hostages for so long -- Ersa's group alone had spent six months with GAM -- despite repeated statements from GAM and the TNI implying that the ball was in the other's court regarding the release of hostages. Meanwhile, the international and local Red Cross bodies have said that their operative procedures dictate that they could only render help in a conflict situation upon the request and knowledge of both parties.

According to our files, neither Red Cross body has ever received a request for their services from both GAM and the TNI simultaneously -- even after reports that a hostage was pregnant, that Ersa had coughed blood and that all hostages, including the sick, were moved constantly from one place to another to avoid the military, walking great distances each day over rough terrain.

The joyful reunion of Ersa's driver Rachmatsyah with his family early last month was only possible because he escaped from GAM during a shoot-out with the TNI.

When the government blasted as "baseless" the report of an international rights watchdog on the "secret war" in Aceh, it merely reflected the sickening and irrelevant New Order-style arrogance. In its dismissal of the Human Rights Watch report, the government still failed to respond to the concerns of its citizens -- that thousands of civilians were forced to remain refugees in their own country and that others remained hostages while their families waited in uncertainty.

After a long silence -- in part because of their anxiety and their trust in promises from both GAM and the TNI for the release of their loved ones -- the hostages' families are now beginning to speak up.

Fery's wife, Maya, in an open letter written on the day of Ersa's funeral to the leaders of both parties, asked, "Please release my husband Fery Santoro and the other hostages. Let there be no more victims. Stop all this fighting, it will only add to the wounds and the sorrows of us all."