Life gets even tougher for Acehnese under siege
Bernie K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Lhokseumawe, Aceh
A convoy of five marine trucks, two armored personnel carriers and a tank rumbled into Pulo Ara village, a group of wooden houses on a sandy beach and nestled among banana and palm trees.
Pulo Ara looks eerily empty. A few faces belonging to women and children appear from behind half-closed doors and window shutters.
For 50-year-old Saridah, the sight of soldiers sweeping through her village is nothing new.
It has been more than three weeks since Aceh came under martial law in a new war against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) following a five-year lull.
People here have faced the return of the war with a certain degree of resignation, as they endure tighter security checks, power blackouts in many parts of the province, higher prices of staple foods and an overall slump in business.
In villages like Pulo Ara, located in Bireuen regency -- one of GAM's strongholds -- living under martial law can often mean getting very close to the actual combat. For rice farmer Saridah, the sound of gun fighting is all too familiar.
"The shooting is a bit farther away than usual," she said as she sat with her children inside her home. "Soldiers come here often, sometimes they chat with us."
The column of military vehicles that passed through her village on Wednesday supplied ammunition to the front line, which, one soldier said, was located five kilometers further down the gravel road.
They stopped at Pulo Ara for a quick sweep for rebels. Marines took up positions behind trees on both sides of the road and the houses just beyond, aiming into the woods. But no shot was fired today.
GAM still retains some influence in villages like Pulo Ara in Bireuen. Locals are often torn between obeying the Indonesian authorities or the rebels. Both sides can be demanding.
Nazar Yusuf, a resident of Blang Mane village in Bireuen, lost his identity card to GAM rebels. The rebels collect the cards to hamper authorities's efforts in hunting down rebels, most of whom do not have IDs.
For this, however, 43-year-old Nazar could have gotten into grave trouble, had he not had his driver's license to show to marines who manned checkpoints along the main road between provincial capital Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe, stopping and searching vehicles as they passed through. He said a group of about 10 GAM rebels took away his ID card on Monday.
Between towns, security checks are also frequent. Vehicles plying the Banda Aceh-Lhokseumawe route must pass through over a dozen police and military posts.
Located away from stray bullets and the chances of coming across a GAM rebel, towns are a much safer place to be.
Still, martial law has impacted the daily routine here as well. Random security checks can be annoying and intimidating, and although the martial law administration has not imposed any curfews yet, people refrain from venturing out late at night.
Even in the capital of Banda Aceh, the streets already look deserted at about 8.00 p.m. The shorter nights cast a pall over businesses, as shops close about one to two hours earlier than usual. In the town of Lhokseumawe, where the military has set up its command center, people hurry back to their homes at around 6.30 p.m.
Abdul Munir, who drives a motorcycle-pulled rickshaw, known locally as becak mesin, said that he used to be able to pick up passengers and drive them anywhere in town. Since martial law was imposed, however, he did not dare wait for passengers into the early morning like before.
He said his average daily income used to be Rp 40,000 (US$4.8) a day, but now, "It's hard to earn even Rp 20,000," he said, sitting on the beach in front of his shack.
The 42-year-old Abdul is originally from North Sumatra, but was born in Aceh and now lives amid a community of other migrants from Java and Sumatra.
Other shop owners report a similar slump, complaining that fewer visitors have come to Lhokseumawe since the province came under martial law.
For people like Abdul, life has gotten even more difficult with last week's power blackout. "We are practically making friends with the mosquitoes and rats that come out at night," he said.
Abdul is among the many who cannot afford to buy a generator, which sold out within a matter of hours after the blackout. A new stock of generators was seen arriving at shops on Wednesday amid a surge in demand.
State-owned electricity company PT PLN said it might take up to one month to restore the power in Lhokseumawe. Last week's power outage hit much of northern Aceh, covering the regencies of North Aceh, Bireuen and Central Aceh, and parts of Pidie.
PLN is facing a potential revenue loss of Rp 240 million a day, excluding Rp 1.2 billion in repairs to fix the four pylons that were allegedly sabotaged by GAM.
Among those who have benefited from the power outage is an old couple who has sold kerosene lamps in Lhokseumawe for the past 25 years.
At only Rp 8,000 a lamp, which burns for many hours, the commodity is in high demand among those who cannot afford to buy a generator, which costs between Rp 900,000 to well over Rp 2 million.
But those Acehnese who will benefit from the consequences of the conflict are few and far between -- for the majority of Acehnese, life will only continue to become harder and harsher the longer the war goes on.