Military fails to stop violence in Aceh

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

The reestablishment of the Iskandar Muda military command in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province has failed to bring about peace in the restive region.

Aceh human rights campaigner Maimul Fidar said the existence of the military command had instead limited the space for civilian activities in the province.

"There is no free space for civilians in Aceh like there was (before the military command was revived)," Fidar said on Saturday, while pointing to a seminar that was recently banned by the authorities in Aceh.

Fidar, coordinator of the Human Rights Aid Institute in Aceh, added that there had been no sign of decreasing violence since the reinstatement of the military command.

He emphasized that the military command was not helping to resolve the problems in Aceh.

Spokesman for the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Pidie, Teungku Laweung, concurred with Fidar, saying that the reestablishment of the military command had only brought more repression to the province.

He recalled the conflagration in Idi Rayeuk subdistrict and the alleged torturing of 22 civilians in West Aceh by the military and police on June 5 and June 6.

"The military command will not confine us, but rather will give us more space. We regret the increasing number of civilian fatalities in every incident," he said, responding to a question about whether GAM's room for maneuver had been curbed since the reestablishment of the military command.

The Iskandar Muda military command was reinstated on Feb. 5 amid opposition from human rights activists. It was originally formed in 1956, but was disbanded in 1985 for efficiency reasons. Since then, security operations have been coordinated by the Bukit Barisan military command, based in Medan, North Sumatra.

At least 1,700 were killed last year in Aceh, with more than 200 having been killed since the beginning of this year alone.

Iskandar Muda military command spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus Komarno, however, refuted all the accusations, saying that people should differentiate between civilians and the military.

"The military and civilians are two different things. How can they be mixed up?" Komarno asked laughing.

Commenting on the accusations that the military often committed human right abuses, Komarno said his men could not arrest and punish people on a whim.

"We have procedures. If someone is proven guilty, we will take action," he said, adding that the existence of the military command had helped improve the psychological state of the Acehnese.

According to Komarno, the Acehnese now dared to once again go about their everyday activities. "That's a success," he said on Saturday.

Despite the arguments of the military, violence has been on the rise over the past few weeks in Aceh.

The latest incident was on Saturday morning when a police officer, identified as Samsul, 50, was shot dead by an unidentified person at his home on Jl. Taman Siswa in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. He was rushed to the hospital, but to no avail.

His daughter said that she knew the identity of the assailant.

Previously, six members of the Air Force's special forces (Paskhas) were killed in an ambush near Iskandar Muda airport in Blangbintang, Aceh Besar regency, on Wednesday night.