John Aglionby, Jakarta – Thousands of people in Aceh province in western Indonesia demonstrated yesterday to demand a referendum on independence from Jakarta amid reports of unabated military brutality both there and on the eastern spice island of Ambon. Human rights activists say that while the world's gaze has been fixed on East Timor, more than 200 people have been killed since July in both troubled provinces.
Amien Rais and Abdurrahman Wahid, two of Indonesia's most influential politicians and both well-known Islamic intellectuals, joined the 4,000 students and Muslim scholars who demonstrated at the main mosque in Aceh's provincial capital, Banda Aceh.
Carrying banners emblazoned with the word "referendum", the protesters were unfazed by military threats to clamp down on any separatist movements in the wake of the army-inspired destruction in East Timor after the territory's overwhelming vote to sever its ties with Jakarta.
"To solve the conflict that is happening in Aceh there is no other way but with a referendum," Tengku Nurujjahri Yahia, a local Muslim scholar, told the meeting.
Humam Hamid, a prominent Acehnese lawyer and human rights activist, said the military's "attempt to wipe East Timor off the map" would not cow the Acehnese into submission.
"We want peace and justice and will not rest until we get them. If the army tries to repeat East Timor here it will only make the situation very much worse," he added.
Information collected by the Aceh Human Rights Forum indicates that more than 200 people have been murdered in Aceh in the past six weeks. Witnesses say "unidentified mysterious gunmen", believed to be members of undercover military units, are responsible for most of the deaths.
Aceh's problems arise from Jakarta's repeated refusal to make good a 1958 promise to grant wide-ranging political, religious and cultural autonomy to the resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Armed separatist movements emerged in the late 80s and since 1989 the Indonesian army has waged a ferocious campaign to crush the Acehnese separatist movement.
President BJ Habibie and his generals promised to investigate abuses and look into devolution while intensifying a crackdown on separatists. Last week the Indonesian parliament discussed the possibility of "special status" for Aceh, but it is not expected to take a decision.
An army spokesman in Aceh said yesterday that the situation was still "very tense" but that the majority of the 140,000 refugees who fled their villages in July had returned.
The chances of lasting peace on the island of Ambon also appear to be slim, according to local human rights workers.
"After eight months of violence, the situation is getting worse not better," said Henky Hatu of Pattimura university in Ambon. "We now have East Timor style thugs armed with military weapons operating in many areas."
Researchers in his department say there have been 202 deaths and 749 serious injuries from ethnic clashes and military intervention since July 15. Reliable church sources say this is a conservative estimate.
"Our figures show there were well over 100 deaths between July 26 and August 15," a priest living in Ambon said. "We have also heard of very nasty clashes elsewhere in the area and so the death toll now is probably well over 300."
Independent confirmation of such figures is almost impossible. Ambon's airport has been closed to commercial flights since the beginning of August, terror gangs stalk all the inter-provincial ferries, and many roads are so dangerous they are no-go zones.
"People have been killed on every single boat for the last six weeks," said Andi Tamher, a student about to leave for Jakarta. "The only way to ensure surviving on the ferries is to rent a cabin and lock oneself in, but few people can afford to do this."
More than 2,000 military reinforcements have been deployed on Ambon to quell the eight-month unrest. At the heart of the violence there appears to be a clash between Christians and Muslims, but many people believe this is just a cover story for more sinister goings-on.
"Everything here is top down. No one is getting the people involved in the peace efforts," Dr Hatu said. "It seems the government doesn't want to find a solution.
"We're witnessing political games among the elite and the people are being used as the scapegoat," he added. "No one has any idea how long it will go on for."