Tension and demonstration mark Aceh activist's trial

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post , Banda Aceh

The trial of an Aceh activist in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh, on Monday turned tense when more than 150 supporters of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) staged a demonstration to protest the trial and the arrest of two other SIRA activists.

The demonstrators, mostly students, noisily demanded the release of SIRA chairman Muhammad Nazar while waving referendum flags and Nazar posters as the leader of Nazar's defense team, Abdurrahman Yacob, read out his client's response to the charges brought by the government prosecutors.

The protesters called on the panel of judges to release the defendant as all the prosecution charges against him were baseless.

A protester said in a speech that the arrest of Nazar was against the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement, which they said allowed the people to freely express their aspirations.

He accused the Indonesian government of occupying Aceh and arbitrarily victimizing the Acehnese people.

"Thousands of Acehnese have been killed at the hands of soldiers even though Aceh was one of regions that supported the founding of the Republic," he said.

The situation inside and outside the court became heated when two SIRA activists, Muhammad T.A. and Faisal Ridha, were brought by force to the Banda Aceh police station for questioning.

The protesters dispersed when dozens of riot police guarding the court building promised to release the two activists after questioning. So far, however, the pair have yet to be allowed to return home.

During the hearing, Abdurrahman requested the panel of judges to keep their promise to transfer Nazar to the city's Keudah prison from the police detention center as his client was now in the custody of the prosecutors.

"The prosecutors are refusing the transfer our client to the prison and the judges are doing nothing to stop this violation," he said.

He threatened to boycott the court if his client was still being held in the police detention center by the time of the next hearing.

"We will continue to have difficulties contacting our client for as long as he is in the police's detention center," he said, adding that their client was sick and the medical service in the prison was far better than that in the police detention center.

Abdurrahman also requested to the panel of judges to throw out the prosecution charges against his client as they were vague, and order the prosecution to release him.

"The charges are obscure as he was arrested for delivering a speech to the Acehnese people. In fact, his speech made no difference to the situation in the province," he said.

Nazar was arrested on Feb. 12 when he called on Acehnese people to demand a self-determination referendum for the province as the central government has mistreated the people.

The prosecutors charged the defendant with sowing hatred against the government because he violated Chapters 154 and 160 of the Criminal Code, which carry maximum sentences of seven years imprisonment.

Nazar has previously served a nine-month jail sentence in Keudah prison for the same offenses.

Security authorities in Aceh have closely monitored SIRA's activities following its support for a self-determination referendum in Aceh, instead of the independence that has long been fought for by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

SIRA, which was supported by Acehnese students and intellectuals, was involved in the 1999 mass gathering in Banda Aceh, attended by some two million Acehnese people.

The Aceh conflict, which has claimed more than 12,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of others, broke out in 1976 when Acehnese people took up arms to protest what they regarded as injustice and human rights abuses encountered in their attempt to fight for the province's separation from Indonesia.