The Aceh killing fields

The Aceh killing fields

Reports reaching us about the human rights abuses committed in
recent years by Armed Forces personnel in Indonesia's westernmost
province of Aceh have made us shudder.

While precise figures may as yet be lacking, estimates made by
independent investigators on the basis of field observations and
interviews with local residents in the Acehnese hinterland
indicate that the number of people who were killed, went missing
or were physically abused between 1989 and 1998 runs into the
thousands.

Amnesty International, the London-based international human
rights watchdog, reported recently that between 1989 -- when Aceh
was declared a military operation zone -- and 1992 about 2,000
people, including local civilian supporters of the Free Aceh
Movement, were killed in military operations. About a thousand
more civilians were detained on suspicion of supporting the
movement or simply because they had relations who were
independence activists.

Those who doubt the impartiality of Amnesty International's
observations will not view the findings of the independent
Indonesian investigators with much comfort. Again, while precise
figures are as yet hard to come by, many expert observers and
most elements of the media seem to agree that the number of
people who have gone missing in Aceh since the province was
declared a military operation zone has now reached at least
1,600. An official fact finding team from the House of
Representatives which recently visited Aceh is expected to
clarify this when it releases its report.

Eyewitness accounts of what happened in Aceh during those
terrible years will make most people's hair stand on end. "Teuku
Ayah could hardly believe his eyes. His knees trembled when he
saw hundreds of corpses piled up in a hole in front of him like
dead rats. No sooner had he recovered his composure than an
officer ordered him and his companions to bury the bodies and
level the ground over the mass grave. Ayah's fear heightened when
an officer tied another man to a tree and shot him dead. The
corpse was simply left there to decompose," Gatra newsmagazine
reported in its latest issue.

As shocking as those revelations may be, the use of excessive
force on civilians by members of the Armed Forces is not actually
new. To this day, the 1991 Santa Cruz incident in the East
Timorese capital of Dili remains an indelible stain on the
history of Indonesia's presence in the troubled province. More
distant, but no easier to forget, is the 1984 Tanjung Priok
incident in Jakarta in which hundreds of people are believed to
have been shot dead by the security forces.

Similar force was applied during the July 27, 1996, riot in
Jakarta, which is still a hot topic for public debate. Most
recently of course was the abduction and torture of young,
dissenting political activists. In other words the use of brutal
and excessive force on citizens of this country, during
peacetime, by members of their own Armed Forces intent on
achieving political objectives. Tragically this has become common
practice in the country over the years.

It is difficult to say exactly when this penchant for killing
and torturing their own people began. It was certainly not
evident in the early years of Indonesia's independence, when the
Indonesian Armed Forces was a people's army in the truest sense
of the word, fighting side-by-side with the civilian population
to wrench sovereignty from the Dutch. But while it is hard to say
when it all began, it is easy to say when it must end:
immediately.

ABRI must stop treating dissenting civilians like enemies in a
war. And it must do so without delay, or not only will ABRI lose
all credibility, the country and the nation will be placed in
danger of disintegration. It is no coincidence that separatist
movements are strong -- and have managed to remain strong -- in
the so-called military operation zones of Aceh, East Timor and
Irian Jaya. The excessive use of force by ABRI personnel is also
one reason why its dual function, particularly its role in the
nation's politics, is at present under public scrutiny.

This nation needs a strong, dependable and solid Armed Forces.
However, it must be an Armed Forces that truly offers security to
the citizens of this country. Further serious human rights abuses
by Armed Forces personnel simply cannot be tolerated.