Human Rights Watch called on Indonesian authorities to find and punish the murderers of Jafar Siddiq Hamzah. Jafar, a leading human rights activist from Aceh, Indonesia, and a permanent resident of New York, disappeared in the North Sumatran city of Medan on August 5. His body was found with four other as yet unidentified victims some 83 km west of Medan on Sunday and was positively identified by the family on Wednesday.
"Jafar was a friend, a colleague, and one of the most dedicated human rights defenders I've ever known," said Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "The most fitting honor to his memory will be to bring to justice not only his killers, but those responsible for the thousands of disappearances that have taken place in Aceh over the last decade."
Human Rights Watch learned that Indonesian police were refusing to let forensic doctors turn over the body for burial until additional medical reports from New York were received. An autopsy apparently revealed evidence of a colon operation Jafar had had in New York in 1998. The bodies found in North Sumatra had been dead "more than ten days" according to a family member, who said it was not clear whether the cause of death was shooting or stabbing.
Jafar Siddiq, a human rights lawyer and founder of the International Forum on Aceh, had left New York in June for a short visit to Aceh to further his efforts to draw international attention to the lack of progress on prosecuting grave human rights abuses in Aceh and to the need for a resolution of the conflict there. He was in Medan on August 5 to meet with an Acehnese businessman. He left that meeting around 1:30 p.m. and was not seen alive again. Thus far, no clues whatsoever have emerged as to the identity of his abductors, but the pattern of his disappearance has led most observers to assume that the Indonesian army was responsible. The provincial army commander in Medan has denied any involvement. An investigation by police in Medan, launched in part as a result of international pressure from the U.S. and other governments, has failed to produce any leads.
Jafar now becomes the latest in a growing toll of activists killed or disappeared in Medan and Aceh. "We find it odd that so many high-profile people can vanish or be killed, particularly in Medan, Indonesia's third largest city, and yet the police have not been able to make a single arrest," said Jones. "It would seem to indicate incompetence or complicity of the security forces."
The conflict in Aceh dates back to 1976 but had a particularly virulent phase from 1990 to 1999 when Aceh was declared a special operations zone by the military, determined to crush armed rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka or GAM). Thousands of civilians were killed or disappeared during this period; many more were arbitarily detained. GAM was also responsible for human rights abuses, but not on the scale of the government's counterinsurgency forces.
After fall of President Soeharto in 1998, many Achenese expected that finally, there would be serious investigations and prosecutions of those responsible for the abuses. Very little happened. As a result a new, nonviolent movement arose among elements of Acehnese civil society, demanding a referendum on Aceh's political status, one choice in which would be independence.
The government, first under President Habibie and now under President Abdurrahman Wahid, tended to make no distinction between GAM and the pro-referendum activists, although many of the latter distanced themselves from support for armed struggle.
In May 2000, President Wahid approved a "humanitarian pause" in the conflict through a historic agreement reached by the government and GAM in Geneva, through the good office of the Henri Dunant Institute. That "pause" was just extended, but in practice, it has meant no end to human rights violations.
Jafar Siddiq Hamzah was committed to ensuring accountability for past abuses and working for a resolution of the conflict.
