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VI. Detention and Prison Facilities

After the declaration of martial law in Aceh the Indonesian government announced plans to use Nasi Island, off the coast of Aceh, as a detention site for arrested and surrendered GAM fighters and supporters. There were immediate comparisons in the international press to the U.S detention facility at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. But, in fact, Indonesia has a long history of using some of its thousands of islands as prisons and detention facilities. Buru Island in the Maluku region of Indonesia was home to many of Indonesia’s political prisoners in the aftermath of the attempted 1965 coup that led to the ousting of President Sukarno. Atauro island off the north coast of East Timor, was also used as a penal colony for East Timorese after Indonesia invaded the territory in 1975.⁹⁷

The issue of where to house the thousands of anticipated GAM prisoners was clearly a problem when martial law was imposed in May 2003. Indonesia was preparing for large scale arrests but lacked the capacity to implement this part of the “integrated operation” properly without detention centers, extra legal resources, and prison space. There was also an acknowledgement that it was unfeasible and undesirable to convict and imprison the entire captured or surrendered population. Alleged GAM members had started to surrender to authorities, and at the beginning of July 2003 a temporary detention camp in Banda Aceh, consisting of five tents, was already housing ninety-nine detainees.⁹⁸

However, by July 2003, the Nasi Island proposal had run out of steam, with an apparent lack of funds and political support blamed for the failed effort. Indonesian Armed Forces Commander, General Endriartono Sutarto told journalists, “Perhaps it would be more efficient if we rehabilitate [detainees] rather than use Nasi Island.”⁹⁹ Soon after this the idea of “re-education” centers became policy.

In January 2004 the first graduates of Aceh’s “re-education” centers were released. A total of 438 former GAM members and supporters became the first to complete a five-month government “re-education” program. Graduates were allowed to return home but had conditions put on their release. They had to report to their district governments as well as to local military and police, ask for permission from local authorities if they wished to change their residence, and were prohibited from leaving Aceh. Major General Endang Suwarya told reporters that the graduates would be watched: “We will form a special team to monitor their development so we can know how successful this “re-education” is, because it's the first.”¹⁰⁰

During the five months in the “re-education” center inmates were given mandatory sessions in the basic principles of the Indonesian state, including the state ideology Pancasila. Military police and provincial officials were responsible for training not only state loyalty, but also trades such as fishing, farming, and tailoring.¹⁰¹ Before returning home, the graduates were also required to take an oath declaring that they had ceased to belong to GAM, and had submitted to the ideal of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.

On leaving the centers the graduates were given Rp 2.5 million (US$275) each, as seed capital to start businesses in their home districts. Major General Endang Suwarya told journalists that the five-month reeducation course had cost more than Rp 2 billion (US$220,000) in taxpayers' money.¹⁰²

Since January more graduates have completed “re-education” at three established camps in Aceh. It is estimated that 1,200 people have so far attended the training courses in the three camps.¹⁰³ Crucially entry is limited to those who have voluntarily surrendered to authorities, and to those deemed not to have held senior positions with GAM.

One senior diplomat in Jakarta told Human Rights Watch “the treatment in the “re-education” centers is being monitored…what is happening is not that bad…visitors to these camps think that they [detainees] are well looked after, there are no signs of obvious abuse and considerable attempts at rehabilitation.”¹⁰⁴

While there may not be any signs of visible abuse, the criterion for entry and graduation from these centers is ambiguous. Without any clear legal mechanism for establishing the guilt or otherwise of inmates, the centers run the risk of being seen as extra-judicial internment facilities. Some press and NGO accounts question the motivation for people to voluntarily surrender to authorities in Aceh. Fear of Indonesian security authorities is pervasive in Aceh. It is possible that voluntary surrender is seen as a safer option than running the risk of arbitrary detention or arrest by Indonesian security forces. What is clear is that the treatment of those arrested, detained, and convicted is often severe, and the prospect of such treatment may well be less palatable than five months in a “re-education” center.

Transfers to Java

In January 2004, Minister for Justice and Human Rights Yusril Mahendra announced that prison overcrowding in Aceh had prompted a decision to transfer some Acehnese prisoners to prisons in Central Java.  The transfer was applicable to those sentenced to prison terms of three years or higher.

The 143 prisoners selected for the first transfer from Aceh arrived in Central Java by Hercules military planes on January 21, 2004. The prisoners arrived wearing blue prison uniforms and were handcuffed and chained together at the hands and ankles.¹⁰⁵ As of late July, it was believed that fifteen transferees were children.¹⁰⁶

Most of the Acehnese prisoners transferred to Java have been sent to maximum security prisons on Nusa Kambangan island off Java's southern coast and prisons in and around Semarang, on the north coast of Central Java.

Although Aceh’s jails are indeed overcrowded, so are prisons in Java.  One possible reason behind the move was to isolate prisoners from family and GAM members in Java in a bid to weaken GAM’s infrastructure and communications. There has also been speculation that GAM prisoners were transferred to Java to prevent them from indoctrinating other prisoners in Aceh.

Although Justice Minister Mahendra vehemently denied any political reasons for the transfers, then Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters, “Incarcerating GAM members outside Aceh is a government policy for dealing with state security convicts or those involved in separatist movements, based on national security interests.”¹⁰⁷

GAM officials in Sweden reacted angrily to the transfers.  On January 26, 2004, they argued that the transfers amounted to exiling of Acehnese from Aceh in repetition of tactics used by the Dutch East Indies colonial administration.¹⁰⁸  The widely respected Jakarta Post made the same argument in an article.¹⁰⁹  Justice Minister Mahendra responded that, “A newspaper has cynically said that we are aping the approach of the Dutch East Indies colonial administration. That is not true. This is not exile; the justice and human rights ministry has nothing to do with politics.”¹¹⁰

A lawyer from Aceh told Human Rights Watch:

The official reason from the government is to eradicate their [the GAM detainees] ideology. Secondly the lack of detention facility capacity in Aceh. But, really it is more consistent with the first point. Endang Suwarya [martial law administrator] often says things like that. The military emergency from before had a plan to make Nasi Island a kind of Guantanamo, but there wasn’t enough money. It is cheaper to transfer them to Central Java by Hercules.¹¹¹

Prisoners told Human Rights Watch that the transfers have caused an enormous amount of trauma and resentment. The majority of those interviewed told Human Rights Watch that they were unaware of plans to transfer them until the last minute. This meant that very few prisoners were able to inform their family members of their transfer or see them before their departure. One man described the morning of his transfer:

At 8 o’clock in the morning we were taken out of the prison, but that was normal.  Then arrived the news that I was ordered to get ready, they said I was going to be transferred.  Straight away I asked, “Where am I going to be transferred to, sir?”  He said to Lhokseumawe [in Aceh] and that was very sudden.  At that time there were four of us and I asked again, “Why didn’t you say that to us yesterday?” and he said that he also didn’t know.  We were transferred to Lhokseumawe.  After we arrived in Lhokseumawe, myself and a friend were summoned by the military police and I asked, “Is it true we will be transferred to Java” and he said “Yes, it’s true you will be transferred,” and I was really panicked and didn’t know how to say anything, should I send a letter to my family or not?  But it was not possible that I could do anything because it was sudden and I did not expect that I would be here [Java] now. Before, I thought they were pretending, just to frighten me, but it really has happened.¹¹²

Another man told Human Rights Watch:

At the time of departure me and some other friends were ordered to prepare because we were going to be sent to Java island, and I didn’t have a chance to send the news to my wife that I would be sent to Java and maybe my wife does not even know that I was already transferred. On January 25, 2004 we were lined up, and then hands, feet, and our bodies were tied with chain and we were sent to Java on a Hercules.¹¹³

Another man explained how he felt:

I was transferred in January 25, 2004 and at the time our hands, feet, and bodies were tied and we were ordered to get on a truck, then we left for the airport and flew here [Java]. The first time we were taken to LP Bireuen, after that transferred to LP Banda Aceh.  At that time there were 33 of us taken and our sentences were very different, some with three, four, five, six years.  The highest sentence was six or seven years and even one with ten years.… I thought that maybe we were people who would be “disappeared” because at the time of our departure it was like they were hiding us, really early in the morning, and they seemed to be scared in case journalists found out. I really don’t know why it was like this … We didn’t ask them because we were treated like goats who were being taken to, I don’t know where, and we were tied just like animals. At the time I was very sad and I just submitted to my fate. If you want to speak, you must go where? Even in the trial we were not listened to, so what about outside the trial … I do not want to take the risk, even though I am not guilty.  Yeah, what can I say? It is better to just be quiet than to be dead.¹¹⁴ 

In July 2004 the Indonesian government announced more transfers of prisoners, from Aceh to Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara.¹¹⁵

Rule 44(3) of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners provides that “[e]very prisoner shall have the right to inform at once his family of his imprisonment or his transfer to another institution.”¹¹⁶

Restrictions on Family Visits

“Now I don’t know anymore how my family is and they also do not know how I am here [in Java].  I only wish to Allah SWT that our hopes are protected.”
Twenty-eight-year-old prisoner from Aceh¹¹⁷

For many prisoners the transfer to Java is the first time they have spent an extended period away from their families¹¹⁸ and the first time they have traveled outside of Aceh. One twenty-year-old man was visibly distraught by the process of his trial and subsequent transferal to Java. When asked about whether or not he had had any contact with his family since his arrival in Java, he said:

There has not been any because it is really difficult and I am very sad because I cannot meet with my family, and I even don’t know how my family is at this moment.  My wish is to be returned to Aceh even though it is very bitter there. At night I always cry remembering my family in Aceh.¹¹⁹

Another man told Human Rights Watch:

I really long for my family, but what to do? It is only held in my heart. I have already sent a letter to my village but until now there has not yet been a reply. I really miss my family but what can be done? My sentence has not yet finished and I have to go along with this punishment as it has been decided. I have four children, the oldest is in class 3 SLTP and the youngest has just turned ten months. It was only a week after my wife gave birth that I was arrested.¹²⁰

One eighteen-year-old told Human Rights Watch:

The question of my family? We are already far apart now and I have only sent a letter to my family, I have just recently sent a letter to my family, even if they want to visit me, how could they do that? It is far away, so I can only just pray.¹²¹  

Even those who have accepted their convictions and are willing to serve out their sentences are confused and angered by the transfer to Java. One man told Human Rights Watch:

For me everything is normal [in Java], what is definite is my wish, if it’s possible, that we can just be returned to Aceh and just be rehabilitated there, because if we are in Aceh we are close to our families.  Indonesia is just fine because we do not want to be considered as rebels.  We are only ordinary civilians who every day just look for a life which is calmer and pleasant. We do not want Aceh to continue to be in turmoil.¹²² 

Rule 37 of the U.N. Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners states that “[p]risoners shall be allowed under necessary supervision to communicate with their family and reputable friends at regular intervals, both by correspondence and by receiving visits.”¹²³