Stop blaming others over Aceh

Stop blaming others over Aceh

After blaming the press, human rights groups and anyone who
expresses a critical view on the military operation in Aceh as
obstacles to the failure of the government to speedily eliminate
the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the government has now found a new
game to play: the Aceh local bureaucrats. The bureaucrats are not
only seen as corrupt and unskilled but their loyalty to the
Unitary Republic of Indonesia is questioned too.

The government boasts that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and
National Police (Polri) have committed no wrongdoing during the
almost four-month military operation. In other words, they are
not responsible for the failure to achieve what the government
had previously promised: The military operation would be a
combination of military offensive, humanitarian mission and an
acceleration of law enforcement.

Listen to what Coordinating Minister for Security and
Political Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said last Thursday:
"There is nothing wrong with our security troops, both the
military and police, prosecutors and the rest of the officials
outside the administration."

One day later, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced the
government's move to include GAM on the UN's list of terrorist
groups, via the UN Security Council. Should Indonesia fail to
convince the UN, we are worried that a new scapegoat will be
found. The UN would be easy to blame -- as Indonesia blamed it
after the defeat in the 1999 East Timor referendum -- as the
primary source of the government's failure to solve Aceh problem.

Although it is very difficult to obtain objective data on the
latest situation in Aceh due to the severe restrictions imposed
on the media, we can guess that the number of refugees and
students who cannot return home and go to school remains high.
National media organizations refrain from sending their reporters
there due to high security risks in the war-torn province.

The government has deployed 35,000 TNI personnel and 14,000
police to fight about 5,000 rebels. We do not have accurate data
on GAM's real capacity but the way former Cambodian fighter Son
Sann described the number of troops who fought against the Hun
Sen government until the early 1990s could be indicative. "The
total number of my soldiers was much higher than you would
expect, but also lower than I have often told you," he said to a
reporter in 1989.

Back to Susilo's statement: We feel saddened that a prominent
figure like this retired general still fails to see the truth, to
act as a mature official and to confront the harsh reality of
what is wrong with the government's strategy on Aceh. Does he
think that after dismissing all bureaucrats who fail to prove
their loyalty to the nation, peace will automatically come to
Aceh and the rebels will easily be kicked out of the province?

When the Indonesian government was busy condemning the UN as
the most responsible party for the decision of the majority of
East Timorese people to say goodbye to their colonial ruler in
1999, the whole world saw us as a laughing stock. Most East
Timorese had no wish to remain part of us because the government
failed to win their hearts and minds.

The failure of the military solution in East Timor should be a
reminder for Indonesia not to repeat the same stupidity. Indeed,
the government has vowed not to repeat the East Timor fiasco, but
still we are worried that the meaning of a mistake for the
government may be different from that in the public perception.

We are afraid that President Megawati Soekarnoputri's
government is of the view that the mistake is therefore limited
to President B.J. Habibie's decision to allow the East Timor
referendum. What we hope the government realizes is that the
mistake was more about the failure of the military solution for
East Timor.

President Megawati could order TNI to step up its military
operation in Aceh, or to buy the most sophisticated weapons and
jet fighters to kill the rebels. She could also force Acehnese
people to say that they love Indonesia as much as she does. But
she will never win their hearts and minds through the use of
force.

We do realize that the government will not be interested at
all in calls to halt the military approach in Aceh. Yet we are
convinced that the resumption of dialog with the people and the
use of peaceful means -- remember GAM is part of Aceh society --
is the only way to achieve a peaceful solution for the province.