Muzzling press in Aceh shows wider clampdown

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.