(31 March 1998)--Human Rights Watch today called on the Indonesian government to grant immediate access by humanitarian organizations to some 500 Indonesian nationals from the special region of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra, who were deported as illegal migrants by Malaysia over the last week.
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On March 26, eight migrants and a policeman were killed in a riot sparked by migrants protesting deportation in the immigration detention center in Semenyih, outside Kuala Lumpur; the Malaysian government said the policeman was stabbed by inmates in the course of the uprising. Hundreds of Acehnese were said to be detained at the camp, but the deportations went ahead anyway. Riots also occurred in three other camps where Acehnese inmates were detained. On March 28, the UNCHR officially requested the Malaysian government to stop deporting Acehnese and to grant access to the immigration centers. On March 30, twelve Acehnese were among fourteen migrants who forced their way into the UNHCR compound in Kuala Lumpur demanding protection; all had escaped from the Lenggeng detention center in Malacca during the March 26 riots.
Of the Acehnese deported to Indonesia, forty-two were injured, some with gunshot wounds, according to a report in the April 1 Jawa Pos, an Indonesian newspaper. The paper quoted a doctor who accompanied them from Malaysia as saying, "All of the wounded workers had been treated inhumanely, and were still bloody when they were put on the boat." All are currently being treated in the Lhokseumawe general hospital.
Malaysia has traditionally been the refuge of choice for Acehnese fleeing from Indonesian military operations against Aceh Merdeka, an armed guerrilla group founded in 1976 and dedicated to independence for what it calls Acheh/Sumatra. An initial burst of activity led to widespread arrests of suspected Aceh Merdeka supporters in 1977, followed by a long period in which the movement lay dormant. In 1989, attacks by the guerrillas began to occur with a frequency and geographic spread that suggested a more coordinated movement than had been the case a decade earlier, but the group still controlled no territory and remained poorly equipped and organized. In at least three districts, East Aceh, Pidie and North Aceh, it appeared to have the rudiments of a command structure and a pool of young men on whom it could rely for hit-and-run attacks and ambushes of military patrols, and it began to rely heavily on Malaysia as a place of sanctuary. Indeed, its operational leadership, to the extent that there was one, appeared to be based in Kuala Lumpur.
The Aceh Merdeka attacks prompted counterinsurgency operations by the Indonesian military from 1989 well into 1992 in which widespread killings, torture, disappearances, and arbitrary detentions of suspected guerrilla supporters and their relatives became commonplace. The army camp in Rancong _ the place to which the 1998 deportees reportedly have been sent _ was the site of extrajudicial executions and torture during this period.
Although not on the scale of the 1989-92 period, military abuses in Aceh have continued ever since, with shooting on site of suspected guerrillas (usually on the pretext that the latter were resisting arrest or attempting to flee) and detention without charge or trial in military camps the most prevalent. The International Committee of the Red Cross had periodic access to detention centers in Aceh from May 1991 until March 1997.
The Malaysian government has never allowed the UNHCR or any other international organization access to Acehnese in immigration detention centers. The only Acehnese who have been treated as anything other than illegal immigrants were some forty-five Acehnese with suspected links to Aceh Merdeka who entered the UNHCR compound in Kuala Lumpur in 1993 and occupied the grounds there for two years (by which time, through births, their numbers had risen to fifty-five). They were released into the community in 1995 with certificates from the Malaysian Home Ministry known as IMM13 that permitted them to remain in the country. Eight other Acehnese managed to get into foreign embassy compounds and were released into the custody of the UNHCR. The UNHCR treated all eight as refugees. It now appears that some IMM13 holders as well as some of the eight were among the deportees.
