Hopes for normalcy still remote in Aceh

Hopes for normalcy still remote in Aceh

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, The Jakarta Post, Lhokseumawe, North Aceh

Saturday night is no longer lively in the North Aceh capital
Lhokseumawe where youngsters used to gather in street cafes
downtown or just ride around on motorcycles.

"Before the imposition of martial law we used to hang out
until 11 p.m. But now 10 p.m. is already too late. There have
been rumors of a curfew, so we refrain from going out at night to
avoid security raids and armed clashes," high-school student
Rizal Fahmi, 17, says.

The youths here have even decided to stay away from the beach
next to the Marine Headquarters, because, as 16-year-old Taufik
Hidayat says, "bombs are planted there often."

Soldiers and Mobile Brigade police are all over in the city,
where roaming armored vehicles and tanks are commonplace.

Entering the third month of the integrated military operation
to quash Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels, clashes have expanded
to the residential area downtown, where most of the victims are
believed to be civilians. The martial law administrator argued
that such incidents proved the operations had managed to suppress
the insurgents who had left their hideouts in the remote
mountainous hamlets or coastal areas.

As part of the efforts to separate GAM members from civilians,
the martial law administration has ordered residents to obtain
new identity cards.

Other efforts include transporting residents to refugee camps,
a strategy that Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono
Sutarto admitted had hurt the Acehnese as many had found their
belongings missing upon returning home.

Two soldiers are standing trial for allegedly stealing money
and jewelry from a house belonging to a woman in a refugee camp.

The military court has also convicted three soldiers for
raping four women.

Endriartono apologized to the Acehnese people last week for
all the excesses of the TNI.

A mere apology is apparently not enough before security and
public order is fully restored and residents can return to their
normal life.

Lhokseumawe-based military operation command spokesman Lt.
Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said the restoration of security and
order, which is one of the targets of the integrated operation in
the province, would take time.

"Many residents have now taken a stand against GAM members and
have even taken revenge for the abduction of their relatives by
GAM members. Should we fail to stop them, a communal conflict
could have occurred. But the fact is they feel secure due to our
presence here."

However, many of the residents do not share Yani's claim.

A vegetable vendor at state-owned market Pajak Inpres in the
town, Nurjanah, said she had not been able to reach the market
for two months and instead was forced to return home to Cot Me
hamlet, Kuta Blang village, as armed clashes between the security
forces and GAM members continued.

"We'd better stay at home and let the vegetables rot," she
said.

Along with other vendors, Nurjanah used to hire a pick-up
truck carrying them from home at 4 a.m. to the market, returning
home about noon.

"We had to pass three security check points on a one-way trip
where we sometimes were forced to pay Rp 2,000 (about 25 US
cents) at each post or leave some of the vegetables," she
recalled.

In many hamlets where male residents once went into the forest
to pick pinang (areca nuts), their main source of money, they
have stopped, letting the women do the tough job in a bid to
avoid trouble.

"We are prone to becoming the target of both the military and
GAM," Muhammad Salim, a resident of Alue Papeun hamlet in Nisam,
said on Saturday.

After staying in the refugee camps at Kedai Amplah for 20
days, Salim said his family's 30 Siamese chickens had gone. "One
chick from the chickens was worth Rp 30,000 on the market."