Rights activists warn government about Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): Human rights activists on Saturday warned about the latent danger of inciting anger in Aceh as the result of what they said were the vague steps so far taken by the government to atone for atrocities committed during military operations in the province.

"The deep psychological wounds carried by the Acehnese people have crystallized. I don't know how much longer they can take this," Maimul Fidar of the Aceh NGOs Forum noted in a gathering of groups and individuals campaigning on behalf of the victims of military atrocities between 1989 and 1998, when the province was designated as a military operation zone.

Members of the Solidarity Forum for Advocacy of Human Rights Abuses in Aceh, which comprises of 21 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), organized the gathering, which was entitled Veil of Sorrow of the Acehnese People.

Traditional dance performances followed the discussion.

The government has pledged to investigate the reported abuses. Fact-finding teams sent to the province by the National Commission on Human Rights and the House of Representatives (DPR) confirmed reports of mass graves, but activists say that further progress has yet to be made.

Armed Forces (ABRI) Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was scheduled to speak to the gathering about military operations in the province but failed to show up.

Maimul said the Acehnese were "fed up with false promises", adding that natives of the province, famed for their fierce and tenacious resistance against the Dutch colonial rulers, "might explode".

"Where is the compensation and rehabilitation promised for all the widows and fatherless children?" he asked.

The Aceh NGOs Forum estimates that 1,998 people died in military atrocities committed in the regencies of Pidie, North Aceh and East Aceh.

The forum presented findings on missing people last updated on Oct. 23. A total of 2,687 people are still listed as missing in the three regencies. The forum also said that 4,563 people were tortured and 173 women raped in the same three areas during the nine-year military operation.

According to the forum, 1,322 women were left widowed in the campaign and 3,392 children left fatherless. Activists said that data collection has been slow because victims and their relatives still live in fear.

A regional administration team dispatched last month produced lower estimates, saying that there were 1,600 cases of rights abuses, 600 women widowed, 10 raped and 1,960 children left fatherless during the operations.

"We want President B.J. Habibie to question all officers involved in the operations," Maimul said.

Legal expert and rights activist Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara, who addressed the forum, said "reconciliation" talks planned by the government had yet to resolve the issue of rights abuses in Aceh.

Habibie's "reform" cabinet, he said, had done nothing "except to say they are sorry and propose a 'reconciliation', which is tantamount to saying let bygones be bygones," Hakim said, adding: "The same sentiment was voiced by (Minister of Defense and Security/ABRI Commander) Gen. Wiranto."

He pointed out that anger has been mounting in Aceh for 10 years and said that an outbreaks of public unrest would be inevitable if the government was seen to be breaking its promise to investigate rights abuses and hold those involved accountable for their actions.

He said the government was still attempting to cover up the issue, just like it did in 1989, when it banned a report he had written about the torture of an Islamic Studies Institute (IAIN) lecturer suspected of being a rebel.

Saturday's gathering also heard testimony from 45-year-old Muhammad Ben bin Hanafiah, a former chief of Panton Rayeuek I village in North Aceh who was tortured by the military on a number of occasions.

"It began in May 1992 when I was a village chief... I was mediating in a land dispute between two villagers," he said. The matter was settled peacefully, but one of the disputing parties was dissatisfied with the result and complained about it to her husband, who was a cuak, a much-feared and disdained military informer.

When Muhammad heard he was to be summoned by the military he fled into the jungle. "Many people who were summoned by military officers never returned," he said.

Troops who found him shot him in the right arm, which was later amputated. He was then interrogated, but the matter did not end there and the military still sought him out from time to time, he said.

"First they asked for my help, but later they tortured me again... just for fun. Now I can't work to support my wife and six children," he said. (edt)