Muzzling press in Aceh shows wider clampdown
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The clampdown on reporting on Aceh is part of a broader pattern of silencing Indonesia's press, notes Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released late Wednesday.
"While the dearth of international reporting on the war (in Aceh) is quite apparent, more pernicious are the lessons being taught to Indonesia's still fledgling, post-Soeharto, media," the report, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post said.
Therefore HRW recommended a prompt visit to Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam by the special rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. The rapporteur has already been invited by the Indonesian government.
The New York-based international rights body also urged the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to immediately release a journalist and cameraman who are being held hostage, respectively Ersa Siregar and Ferry Santoro of the private RCTI television station.
"Controversial coverage is likely to result in threats to physical security," HRW said. Where the subject matter involves security forces, "stories should be vetted before publication with government or military officials; and the imperative of self-censorship if one is to avoid unwelcome consequences."
The rights body conducted over 100 interviews for the 33-page report titled Aceh under martial law: Muzzling the messengers: Attacks and restrictions on the media, including foreign and local journalists, UN and local officials and embassy representatives (www.hrw.org/reports/2003/indonesia1103/).
In Aceh, HRW noted, "both Indonesian security forces and members of GAM have engaged in physical and verbal intimidation of correspondents in the field and editors in Jakarta."
As a result of such pressure, "although information is never more important than during wartime, troubling glimpses are all that is possible right now," HRW reported. "The Indonesian government and military have effectively barred nearly all independent and impartial observers (including diplomats), as well as international humanitarian aid workers, from the province."
Further, "What little is known about conditions in Aceh is disturbing" in the absence of being able to independently confirm reports and statements from the Indonesian authorities or GAM.
The six-month "integrated operation" in Aceh which included a military operation was slated to end on Nov.19 but the government has extended it for another six months, citing among other reasons that security must be maintained, especially given the upcoming elections. Critics have said that the decision was taken without comprehensive evaluation of the "integrated operation."
The Associated Press late Wednesday quoted a military spokesman, Lt.Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki, as saying that "We regulate the journalists but that is for their safety."
A spokesman for GAM, Bakhtiar Abdullah, was quoted as saying that his troops don't intimidate journalists but reserve the right to question anyone entering their territory. GAM representatives have repeatedly said they would release Ersa and Ferry once they obtained a guarantee of safety such as a ceasefire, which Jakarta has not provided.
The HRW report noted that isolating Aceh "has succeeded in making the war in Aceh largely invisible, helping Indonesia achieve its goal of decreasing the interest of the international and Indonesian media and thereby reducing the potential for pressure to cease its military operations."
Worse, HRW noted that with the upcoming elections, "the main opposition parties and aspiring presidential candidates have embraced a nationalist agenda that eschews criticism of the war in Aceh."
Former embedded journalists have also described the pressure against interviewees, as also told to HRW.