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The situation in Aceh, Indonesia, after six weeks of martial law

30 June 2003

Grave human rights have been committed in Aceh, a province with 4 million inhabitants, located on the northern tip of the island of Sumatra, since the Suharto era. The situation has seriously worsened since President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared martial law on 19 May 2003, and military operations have greatly intensified.

A rebel movement, the Free Aceh Movement, GAM, staked a claim for independence in 1976. In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, Aceh was treated as a ‘military operations zone’ (DOM) and military operations largely crushed the movement, but civil society took the brunt of the atrocities from 1989 to 1998, with thousands of killings, rapes and disappearances. A parliamentary mission from Jakarta, which undertook investigations after the fall of Suharto in May 1998, found evidence of about 7,000 atrocities and called for justice against the perpetrators, but its recommendations were ignored.

GAM has continued to conduct operations in the province. Its leaders are based in Sweden where they have been given asylum and hold Swedish nationality.

In 2000, under the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid, talks were held between GAM and the Indonesian government, which led to a ‘humanitarian pause’, but military operations continued and fighting between the Indonesian armed forces, TNI, and GAM continued unabated, although DOM had been lifted in August 1998.

In December 2002, an accord on the Cessation of Hostilities (COHA) was reached, brokered by a Geneva-based NGO; monitors were placed in key areas throughout Aceh but in March this year, they were forced to withdraw after their offices and personnel came under attack by army-backed mobs. It was clear that the local military in Aceh were out to foil the accord.

Talks held in Tokyo on 17 and 18 May to save the accord broke down when Indonesia presented three demands which they knew would be unacceptable to GAM: that GAM should abandon the demand for independence, accept the ‘special autonomy’ granted to Aceh and surrender their weapons. GAM rejected the demands and martial law was imposed on 19 May.

The armed forces have deployed to Aceh equipment supplied by Britain, including Hawk aircraft and Scorpion tanks, despite 'assurances' given by Indonesia when the contracts were concluded and on a number of occasions since that the equipment would not be used for offensive or counter-insurgency purposes or in violation of human rights. A number of military chiefs and governments officials told Minister Mike O’Brien they do not regard the 'assurances' as binding and that they will use the equipment as necessary to prosecute the war in Aceh.

Conditions under martial law

When martial law was imposed, it was announced that an ‘integrated operation’ would start, consisting of a security operation, a law enforcement operation, a government normalisation operation and a humanitarian operation. However, only the security operation has been conducted. Martial law was imposed initially for six months, but top-ranking ministers say that this will be extended if the stated aim of ‘crushing GAM’ has not been achieved. Around 50,000 troops – army and special police/Brimob – are being deployed in Aceh.

War is now raging in Aceh and the conditions there can be summarised as follows:

• With the intensification of military operations, hundreds of people have been killed. The Indonesians claim the victims are all GAM members or sympathisers but this is clearly untrue. According to NGOs which have been able to undertake investigations under extremely difficult and risk-laden conditions, 176 civilians were killed in the first four weeks of martial law, 101 were tortured or maltreated, fifty were detained and more than a dozen disappeared. Lack of access has made it impossible to independently verify these figures, or know whether they tell the whole story. Cases of rape by security forces are frequently reported.

• The National Human Rights Commission, Komnas HAM, undertook a three-day investigation in Aceh in early June, reported the discovery of mass graves and drew attention to the training of militias by the TNI. Army officers challenged the Commission’s findings and made serious threats regarding their safety if they visited Aceh again. The members held a press conference in Jakarta at which the head of the mission attended with his face bound with a cloth to highlight the gagging to which investigators are subjected.

• Foreign journalists and humanitarian organisations are now banned from working in Aceh except with special permission and may only operate alongside the military and in certain towns. All journalists and aid workers must report to the security authorities. Anyone violating the regulations will be ordered to leave within 24 hours. A single entry point into Aceh has been designated and any change of location must be reported to the martial law authority. No foreign journalists are now reporting from Aceh.

• Indonesian journalists must all be ‘embedded’ with the troops and must check all reports with the military. They cannot report the war firsthand and must rely on military statements, which are routinely contradicted by villagers. A TV journalist was seized soon after martial law was imposed; his body was later found. Independent reporting about Aceh in the Indonesian press has virtually ceased, because journalists have been warned to uphold the ‘national interest’ and ‘patriotism’ in their reporting.

• Acehnese NGOs and civil society organisations are unable to function and many activists are in hiding and need to leave Aceh. On 28 June, the Legal Aid Institute in Aceh was raided by troops looking for activists. Acehnese people have been warned not to speak to journalists.

• Some contact is still maintained with activists who are taking great risks to communicate with overseas NGOs but the flow of information is now very limited.

• A key element in the army’s strategy is to separate the population from GAM and force up to 200,000 villagers into special camps. The number of ‘internally displaced people’ is now more than 40,000. An island prison camp is being prepared for detainees.

• New identity cards are being issued to identify alleged GAM supporters. Anyone unable to produce an ID faces the danger of being identified as pro-GAM, with serious consequences.

• All 67,000 local government officials and employees in Aceh are being screened.

• After 76 village heads resigned because they were unable to function under present circumstances, it was announced that military personnel will be appointed to take over local government posts.

• All humanitarian agencies are required to function alongside the Indonesian military.

• Acehnese communities in cities throughout Indonesia are closely monitored for alleged pro-GAM sentiments and to prevent Acehnese who leave Aceh from taking refuge.

While grave human rights violations are now being perpetrated in Aceh and the death toll among civilians has risen dramatically, Aceh has been sealed off from all contact with the outside world and from the rest of Indonesia.

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