Soeharto legacy fans separatism in Aceh
Soeharto legacy fans separatism in Aceh
By Terry Friel
LHOKSEUMAWE, Aceh (Reuters): The old man pulled on the rope
and bucket and dumped another load of putrid salt-water over his
body for his morning bath.
He is angry, his voice heavy with bitterness as he gestures at
the dormant petrochemical plant on the outskirts of this gas-
producing center of Lhokseumawe in restive Aceh province.
"That factory is on my land. That factory is on the land where
my village used to be," he told Reuters. "When they took it, we
couldn't do anything."
The man, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, was
paid $20 in the late 1970s for his 240 sq. meters of land. It was
grabbed so a company owned by then-President Soeharto's youngest
son, Hutomo Mandala Putra, better known as Tommy, could build the
plant.
But the factory now stands silent, a victim of the economic
crisis that hit Indonesia in 1997 and the separatist violence
which has paralyzed the economy of this resource-rich territory
on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
Once relatively comfortable landowners, the man and his family
are now squatting on a small patch of land in the shadow of the
plant, living in a wooden shack and tending their prawn ponds to
earn about Rp 2 million ($230), before costs, over a three-month
cycle.
Land-grabbing by the powerful was commonplace under Soeharto's
32-year, army-backed rule, when the country became a byword for
corruption.
It also stoked Acehnese resentment at the siphoning off of the
province's vast natural resources by the distant central
government in Jakarta.
Clashes between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels and
government soldiers and police are frequent around Lhokseumawe,
where support for independence is strong.
Security fears for Exxon Mobil Indonesia, a unit of U.S.-based
giant Exxon Mobil Corp., to close its gas fields in the area for
five months and costing the company about $350 million, according
to industry estimates.
In a bid to appease separatist passions and prevent Aceh
breaking away, which many Indonesians fear could ultimately
trigger the break-up of the world's fourth most-populous nation,
new President Megawati Soekarnoputri has granted it more
autonomy.
It now has a greater say over its own affairs and a bigger
share of the wealth generated by its resources, including the gas
fields around Lhokseumawe.
But that is not enough for the prawn farmer and thousands more
like him in the fertile province, scarred by years of murder and
other abuses by the military and dishonored promises from
Jakarta.