The issue of soldiers in Aceh

The issue of soldiers in Aceh

Ridwan M. Sijabat, Jakarta

Despite the memorandum of understanding (MOU) that Indonesia
and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed in Helsinki in the middle
of August to end almost three decades of hostilities, child
soldiers still remain a crucial issue in the war-torn province.

It does seem that the military and the police in Aceh and
GAM's military wing are still utilizing child soldiers because in
addition to the absence of a strict ban on the recruitment of
children in armed conflicts, the peace agreement has yet to be
fully implemented.

Both sides have agreed to end armed conflict, but GAM has yet
to disarm all its rebels as the disarmament will formally begin
on Sept. 15 and be completed before Dec. 31, 2005. Likewise, the
Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police have not yet
withdrawn their combat forces.

If the peace agreement collapses as was the case in two
previous pacts, the children, along with adult soldiers, will
certainly take up arms again to resume their fight for Aceh's
independence.

For the time being, child soldiers have already laid down
their arms and joined non-combatant groups to play a role as
messengers, spies and cooks for adult soldiers, who are still in
remote jungle areas of the province.

Reliable sources at a workshop in Medan on the involvement of
child soldiers in armed conflict, revealed recently that the
situation in Aceh still remains uncertain since the conflicting
sides have yet to build mutual trust in implementing the peace
agreement.

This condition has been worsened by the absence of thousands
of children in schools after their schools were burned during the
first few weeks after martial law was declared in May 2003, armed
conflict and destruction by the tsunami.

The local military and police, which have been supported by
armed civilian militias, have also recruited children to play
non-combatant roles as couriers so they can keep a close eye on
GAM movements.

Acehnese children have remained at risk of being abused in and
affected by armed conflicts since there is an absence of serious
measures prevent such crimes against humanity.

Indonesia has already ratified the 1949 Geneva Conventions and
the ILO Convention No. 182 and signed the 1989 Convention of the
Rights of the Child (CRC) and the 2000 Optional Protocol of CRC,
all of which guarantee children's rights not to be involved in
wars, but they have not showed a strong commitment yet in
preventing children from joining armed groups.

The House of Representatives has worked on a number of
legislative items, including Law No. 39 on human rights and Law
No. 23/2002 on child protection, but neither criminalizes any
individuals or parties that recruit children in armed groups and
deploy them in wars or violent activities.

Instead of adopting the 1998 Rome Statute of the International
Court of Justice, which classifies the deployment of child
soldiers in wars as crimes against humanity, Indonesia has
already had Law No. 26/2000 on human rights abuse courts, but it
carries light sanctions against those that use child soldiers.
The law fails to criminalize the recruitment of child soldiers
and classifies it into the category of gross human rights abuse.

Even more disturbing is that the government has jailed child
soldiers, instead of returning them to their respective
communities. They have been treated like adult rebels and charged
with treason against the state. Of more than 1,400 GAM prisoners
receiving amnesty from the government, several dozen were
children under 18 years of age.

Child soldiers and those granted amnesty are also facing a
bleak future since the peace treaty failed to address problems
relating to the planned reintegration of children (and women)
into their social community.

The government's commitment to honestly resolving the Aceh
issue comprehensively will also be tested since the peace treaty
fails to address all problems relating to social reintegration
and rehabilitation of former rebels, including former child
soldiers.

According to the peace treaty, the government will make
efforts to help reintegrate ex-rebels into their communities and
allocate some farm land and money for them, but it remains
unclear how the social reintegration and rehabilitation will be
conducted on the ground. And it presumably will not grant
farmland or money to children.

The government should bear in mind that many children have
joined these armed groups mostly to take revenge against either
the government or the rebels for their relatives killed in the
bloody, prolonged conflict. If the child soldiers are not
rehabilitated and reintegrated in a proper manner, they will
remain bitter and traumatized by the war and this could prompt
them to take up arms again.

Reintegration and rehabilitation are an integral part of the
disarmament and demobilization of rebels and child soldiers and
both must be handled with extra caution in an endeavor to build a
permanent peace in the province. Therefore, the government should
strongly show goodwill to take necessary measures and concrete
steps to deal with the adult rebels, women and children who have
been involved in the conflict.

To make social reintegration and rehabilitation a success, the
government should not just dictate all that needs to be done, but
should give more of a role to the civil society groups, e.g.
nongovernmental organizations, religious institutions and other
third parties, as was the case in Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Despite the continued armed conflict in those two countries,
more than 1,800 child soldiers from the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Elam (LTTE) have surrendered in Sri Lanka and been
reintegrated into their original communities with the help of
religious organizations, NGOs and UNICEF. In the Philippines, the
central government authorities have only played a small role in
the reintegration process.

The government should enhance cooperation with NGOs, Islamic
boarding schools and religious organizations to provide a
comprehensive education package, including psychological
counseling and peace education for ex-child soldiers, to ensure a
smooth transition back to their peaceful communities.

The author is a staff writer for The Jakarta Post.