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?