Rayhan Anas Lubis/GB, Banda Aceh – The offices of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) in Banda Aceh, capital of Indonesias violence-ridden northern-most province, were raided over night by members of the police Mobile Brigade.
The offices on Jl Tengku Panglima Polim were raided around 11.30pm local time on Friday night. Fifteen officers barged in during a meeting of SIRA members and representatives from other NGOs as well as four representatives of the Monitoring Team established to oversee the internationally brokered humanitarian pause.
The four members of the Team were: Otto Syamsudin Ishak, Nasrullah Dahlawi, T Kamaruzzaman and Maimul Fidar. Among the others attending the meeting were Kautsar, Muhammad Nazar, Radhi Darmansyah, Aguswandi and Juanda.
Important documents were taken and Radi Darmansyah from SIRA was almost arrested. The police also took documents pertaining to a mass demonstration planned by the group for November 8. The SIRA offices were also raided in August of this year.
A member of SIRAs central presidium, Zuhri MS, told Detik that he and the others were discussing the November 8 action when over 10 police complete in full uniform and weapons burst in. They claimed they were on regular patrol and had chased a person to the office. Zuhri said no one had entered.
He said that SIRA planned to stage the November 8 demonstration as the Aceh Nations Special Session for Sovereignty as they had last year at the Raya Baitussalam mosque in Banda Aceh. The demonstration would involve people from across the province and aimed to discover their true aspirations for the future.
The police had managed to seize all the important documents relating to the November 8 event. "We will reconsider this action now. We dont know if it will go ahead or not," he said. "Looking for a certain person who ran way was just a pretext," Anton added. The Aceh Besar police were uncontactable for comment.
Early Saturday morning, the Commission for Disappearances and Missing Persons (Kontras) issued a protest letter to the Aceh authorities and the Jakarta government, including to the President. Their statement claimed the raid was lead by Head of Police Investigations, Captain Syukri Hamdani.
The troops reportedly made threatening remarks to the effect that if they found the group members in unlawful places, they would be finished off and that they would take them to headquarters and throw them in the river.