Security forces at fault in Aceh

Security forces at fault in Aceh

Dozens have been killed in various spots in the troubled
province of Aceh during two days of pro-independence rallies in
the capital Banda Aceh. The assembly ended peacefully last
Saturday. Lesley McCulloch, a researcher at the Bonn
International Center for Conversion and at the Australian
National University in Canberra, was with the Acehnese who risked
their lives to attend the gathering.

BANDA ACEH (JP): The people of the troubled northern
Indonesian province of Aceh were on the move.

Thousands of them faced an uncertain fate at the hands of the
Indonesian security authorities as they made their way to Banda
Aceh, the capital of the embattled province where a peaceful
rally in support of a UN monitored referendum on the subject of
independence was due to take place on Saturday, November 11.

I was at the Syiah Kuala University campus in Banda Aceh on
Thursday as hundreds arrived from the Pidie regency, joining the
thousands who'd already gathered from around the province.

They arrived bringing rice and other food stuffs, tarpaulins
to sleep under, cooking pots and stoves. These people have
uprooted themselves from their homes to show support for a
referendum to vote for independence from Indonesia.

Having been turned back on the main roads by the police's
elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) unit and the Indonesian Military
(TNI), they had traveled in trucks, buses and cars on the little
known back roads of this beautiful rainforested province.

One man said: "It took us seven hours to travel the 80km from
Saree. We tried to get through on the main road but Brimob turned
us away and even shot the tires of some of the vehicles."

The vehicles they had just disembarked from were turning
around to go back to pick up more villagers.

A woman, two young children clinging to her, told me: "The
military shot my husband in a rice field. Our convoy refused to
go back and they (Brimob) started to shoot in the air. We all
ran.

"Then they began to shoot at us. Several were injured and my
husband died. We have no weapons, we are only farmers. They have
the guns. I came with the convoy because my husband is already
dead, what could I do? He would have wished me to come."

Reports have also come in claiming that two bridges, at Saree
and Seulawak, have been blown up.

On Wednesday some 1,000 people, having been terrorized by the
police and military on the road, had taken to the sea and arrived
in local fishing boats from Sigli, the capital of Pidie.

These men, women, and children were fired upon by the
authorities as they approached the small fish market port. The
official word is that the authorities shot into the water and
over the heads of the people.

This was obviously not the case, as two civilians -- one an
elderly bystander -- were injured. Indeed, the death toll over
the past five days has reached almost 200 according to reports
from the villages, with many more injured. The number of deaths
is difficult to verify due to the remoteness of many areas.

Independent witnesses tell of Brimob taking away bodies to
unknown destinations.

I myself witnessed people being shot at as they ran through
rice paddies for cover, being made to sit in the blistering sun
and ordered at gunpoint alternately to sing and pray, and tires
of vehicles being shot out. This is the reality of democracy
Indonesian style.

Mohammed Nazar, leader of the Center for Information on a
Referendum for Aceh (SIRA), the organizers of the rally, said:
"We feel so bad. We organized a peaceful rally and it is
resulting in the slaughter of innocent civilians.

"We have sent word to the villages. Please do not try to come
to Banda Aceh. We know you want to be here with us and we know
you support the referendum but please do not risk the lives of
yourselves and your children. We cannot guarantee you safety as
you travel here."

A senior Free Aceh Movement (GAM) representative in the
humanitarian pause monitoring team said: "The 'pause' is not
working. We are here to monitor its failure. We can see from the
actions of the police and the military over the past few days
that the Indonesian government is not committed to the
internationally brokered pause."

In the past, the issues of independence for Aceh and support
for GAM were often separate. Due to the actions of the Indonesian
security forces over the past months, these two issues have been
gradually merging into one.

Generally distrustful of the government in Jakarta, the
Acehnese want independence and many more of them believe that the
only way to obtain this is by supporting GAM.

It is difficult to see what progress could be made at the
peace talks due to be held in Geneva on Nov. 16 and 17. The
Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has said that Indonesia will never grant
independence to Aceh.

The government is offering accelerated development for the
province or special autonomy.

Nasrullah Dahlawy from the United Peoples of Aceh Movement and
chief GAM representative on the humanitarian pause monitoring
committee said in an interview earlier this week: "We do not
trust the Indonesian government. We will never agree to anything
less than full independence.

"The people of Aceh are willing to make a very generous offer
to the Indonesian people of sharing for a limited period the
benefits of the wonderful natural resources that belong to the
free people of Aceh."

In the meantime, although the government has not banned the
referendum rally from taking place, a local police spokesman
Colonel Kusbini Imbar told this author in a telephone interview
on Thursday that "we will do all we can to prevent people
reaching Banda Aceh. This includes the use of force if
necessary."

I have been witness to this use of force.

In an apparent turnaround, President Abdurrahman Wahid said on
Friday that the people of Aceh should be allowed to attend the
rally.

Typical of Indonesian politics, while the President was making
conciliatory noises, Susilo, who was in Central Java, has been
quoted as saying that "firm actions" would be taken to prevent
the mass rally from turning into a popular call for a referendum.

The information I received from local organizers on the
Saturday morning certainly confirms that the crackdown has
continued overnight.

Rahdi, one of the leaders of SIRA said: "The situation has
been really terrible overnight. Despite the President's statement
that the people should be allowed to attend the rally, there has
been another six confirmed deaths and many more as yet
unconfirmed. The numbers of those wounded is around 40.

"Please help us. Let the international community know what is
happening to the people of Aceh."