Mysterious silence

Mysterious silence

The situation in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, has returned to normal
following unrest there earlier this week. The rioting and
looting, which broke out shortly after a second batch of combat
troops withdrew from the province on Monday, continued through
Tuesday. Reports say that one person was killed and dozens
injured as troops tried to contain the unrest. Although it is not
known how much material damage was caused, officials say that
more than 200 buildings were damaged during the two days.

Why the people, witnesses of some of the most brutal military
atrocities this country has seen, went berserk is perhaps not
difficult to answer. What we are eager to know, however, is
whether any group was behind the riots and what its motives were.
The immediate result of the unrest, though, is clear: The
military has postponed the withdrawal of its remaining combat
troops from the province and even sent in 200 new troops to help
restore order.

To find out the complete truth, we may need to supplement a
police or military investigation with a probe by the National
Commission on Human Rights. This is because Aceh, which had been
a place of killing fields over the last nine years due to
military operations against armed rebels, cannot afford another
mystery.

What is difficult to understand is why the atrocities were
allowed to continue for nine years unabated. According to a
recent investigation by the human rights commission, 781 people
were killed during the military operations. Their report also
claimed that 163 others went missing, 3,000 woman were made
widows, between 15,000 and 20,000 children were left without
their parents and at least 102 women were raped.

During those bloody years, which saw atrocities on par with
the cruelty seen in the breakup of Bosnia, none of Aceh's leaders
-- official or unofficial -- came out to speak the truth. This is
even more baffling when we consider the fact that the leaders of
the province, which locals call the Verandah of Mecca, must have
understood well enough that many of their fellow citizens were,
like them, innocent devout Moslems and that the situation was far
from a conflict like the one in Bosnia.

Before a courageous Acehnese woman came to Jakarta in June to
recount some of the province's atrocities, Aceh's 3.5 million
people seemed to have been gagged. The silence indicates that the
province lived under tremendous oppression, raising the question:
What kind of nation are we?

Let's not forget that the Acehnese have well-placed leaders in
Jakarta, one being the deputy speaker of the House of
Representatives who was born in Pidie regency, the site of most
of the province's turmoil. Did these leaders not know what was
going on in their home province?

In Aceh itself, the silence over the atrocities looks even
more unbelievable because Aceh Governor Syamsuddin Mahmud only
asked the central government to revoke the area's military
operation status after a House fact-finding team reported on the
military atrocities.

To make this belated reaction look even more awkward, the
chairman of the provincial council, a retired major general,
jumped on the bandwagon by making the same belated demand.

Common citizens in Aceh said that no sane person would have
dared to open their mouths because it would put them in jeopardy.
But were their local leaders also so scared to speak out that
they let thousands suffer without making any hint that they could
not stand for such human rights abuses?