Human Rights Watch welcomed the start of a new round of talks in Geneva between Indonesian government officials and Acehnese rebel leaders, amid reports that the two sides would sign a cease-fire agreement later today. It urged, however, that the cease-fire agreement be followed by a peace process in which justice and protection of civilians are top priorities. It also called on the Indonesian government to involve leaders of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other civilian groups in efforts to implement the cease-fire.
Civilian groups have played a major role in pushing for a negotiated end to the armed conflict in Aceh," said Joe Saunders, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "But they are not directly represented at the talks and their participation and support is going to be needed if any agreement is to last. The peace effort should also include guarantees that the rights of Acehnese civilians will be fully protected by all parties."
A representative of the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka or GAM), Zaini Abdullah, and the Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland, Hasan Wirayuda, are scheduled to meet at the Henry Dunant Center in Geneva later today. Representatives of the rebels and government have met previously, most recently in mid-April, but the parties have announced that they are close to signing a Memorandum of Understanding that will provide for the first formal cease-fire in the twenty-three-year-old conflict. Early reports suggested that the parties would be agreeing to a three-month cease-fire to begin fifteen days after the signing of the memorandum.
"Once an agreement is signed, a first priority should be finding ways to guarantee the safety of displaced villagers, aid workers, and other civilians who have increasingly been targets of violence," said Saunders. "Another critical issue is addressing Acehnese anger over the systematic military abuses that have plagued the province for more than a decade. The government should launch a comprehensive justice effort."
The current rebel movement in Aceh began more than two decades ago, but recent months have witnessed a significant intensification of the fighting. Civilians have increasingly borne the brunt of the violence, with local Acehnese groups claiming that fifty or more noncombatants have been killed each month this year. Human Rights Watch also urged Indonesia's donors to insist that military abuses are fully investigated and prosecuted, and to strictly condition any military assistance programs on concrete progress in ending abuses in Aceh and bringing those responsible to justice.
The Indonesian government has acknowledged past mistakes in the province, but has not made a concerted effort to address simmering demands for justice. The most significant justice effort to date has been a major human rights trial currently underway in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, before a special tribunal that includes both military and civilian judges. The defendants include over twenty soldiers involved in an attack last July on an Islamic boarding school. The followers of the charismatic religious leader there, Teungku Bantaqiah, were mowed down by bullets as were the Teungku and his wife. Over fifty bodies have been recovered from the site. Not a single soldier was wounded, suggesting the followers were unarmed, and reportedly only four weapons were found in the school.
On Tuesday, May 9, in the most recent court session of the Bantaqiah trial, a series of soldiers testified that they summarily executed twenty-six students who had been apprehended during the attack on the school. The soldiers testified that they had been ordered by their commanding officer to "school" the youth, a term the soldiers said is used by local commanders as a euphemism for killing a detainee. The commanding officer in question, Lt. Colonel Sudjono, originally named as a key suspect in the massacre, has been missing for several months and is not present at the trial. He is either in hiding or is a victim of foul play himself. Despite the damning revelations, the trial is thus focusing only on twenty-five lower-ranking defendants. And without Sudjono's testimony, it is unlikely that the trial will produce significant evidence on the chain of command involved in the decision to open fire.
"Many civilian leaders have been opposed to the violent methods of the rebels but are outraged at the government's failure to put an end to the military's dismal record of abuses in the province," said Saunders. "And the anger is only building as more details of past atrocities come to light. The new agreement offers a window of opportunity."
Details on the effects of the conflict on civilians, along with recommendations from Human Rights Watch, are set forth in a new "Press Backgrounder." The document is available on the Human Rights Watch website (https://www.hrw.org/press/2000/05/aceh05-back.htm).
Background
Since early February 2000, Indonesian security forces have mounted Operation Sadar Rencong III in Aceh, a counterinsurgency operation reportedly designed to find and arrest some 800 rebels. The operation follows a spate of killings of security forces in ambushes. Police officials report that, from July to December 1999 alone, 53 police were killed and many more were injured in such attacks. Counterinsurgency operations, however, have relied heavily on roadblocks and brutal house-to-house searches often accompanied by indiscriminate violence against unarmed civilians. Hundreds have been killed. Activists and local humanitarian aid workers, whom many soldiers see as siding with the rebels, have been directly targeted.
One particularly disturbing aspect of the conflict has been the increasing frequency of "mysterious shootings" and assassinations by unknown third parties. Although a few such acts may be the work of local thugs settling local scores, most appear to have a political objective, and rumors abound that most of the recent killings are the work of rogue soldiers or former soldiers seeking to destabilize the situation. Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has conceded that former soldiers are to blame for much of the violence but has said that security forces have so far been unable to apprehend the suspects.
