Yang Razali Kassim – In a recent gruesome cover story on the situation on Aceh, the Indonesian weekly magazine Gatra recounted the case of a man who was brought at gunpoint by a soldier to a hill in Aceh. Teungku Ayub was given a live demonstration of what could happen to rebels: a fellow villager, tied to a tree, was shot dead and his body left to rot.
The incident took place in 1990 on what has come to be known as Bukit Tengkorak, or Skull Hill. It was the Indonesian military's way of dealing with the Free Aceh separatist movement – Gerakan Aceh Merdeka – and its sympathisers.
According to Gatra, this wasn't the only such incident during a black period from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s. Another villager who had his father abducted by the security forces tried to find him at Skull Hill. There he stumbled upon corpses, some with their rotting flesh eaten away by wild dogs. There were also villages known as kampung janda – villages of widows – because their husbands had disappeared: either abducted, killed or had simply fled into the jungles. Skull Hill isn't the only place where dead bodies could be found. In Oct 1990, Reuters reported of another killing field in Alue Ie Mirah in East Aceh.
The atrocities in 1990 could have been the peak of a military crackdown on Free Aceh which saw the province – it has a proud history fighting against the Dutch – turned into a daerah operasi militer or military operations area. The move saw the despatch of troops from ABRI, the Indonesian Armed Forces, to the area. Many Acehnese fled to neighbouring countries, in particular to Malaysia.
But in the reform era that has followed the fall of President Suharto, ABRI has taken on a different face, as seen in investigations on former Kopassus (special forces) senior officers, most noticeably, Lt-Gen Prabowo Subianto, the son-in-law of Mr Suharto, in connection with missing students. Last Friday, in a move that captured headlines in Jakarta, ABRI chief General Wiranto flew to Aceh and apologised to the Acehnese people for abuses that may have been perpetrated by elements of the military.
General Wiranto then revoked the status of Aceh as a military area, ordered troops to be pulled back to Jakarta within a month and pledged possible amnesty for political prisoners linked to Free Aceh. "On this day, as commander of ABRI and with the blessings of the President, I declare that the security of Aceh will be fully returned to the people of Aceh," Gen Wiranto announced to thunderous applause by the locals.
Gen Wiranto's move on Aceh is important, especially in the context of the current drive to bring to account all those who may have been implicated in the abductions of the activists. Sadly, despite the scale of the atrocities in Aceh, international media attention on the Aceh question has been lacking. Even as human rights groups now focus on missing students and other recent atrocities, they should not forget the Acehnese tragedy.
[On August 10, Agence France Press said that the governor of Aceh has reportedly set up a team to probe human rights violations, including disappearances during military operations. The team, which includes local public figures and members of NGOs, police and the state attorney's office, was set up a day after the Wiranto, pledged that troops would be withdrawn - James Balowski.]