Rights activists warn government about Aceh

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)