Vaudine England – Police arrested Aceh's leading student activist and yesterday threatened imposition of emergency rule if progress was not made towards dialogue.
The activist, Muhammad Nazar, heads the Information Centre for a Referendum in Aceh (Sira), which is lobbying for Acehnese to be allowed to choose independence or continued rule by Jakarta.
In interviews, Nazar insisted his group was not part of the rebel Free Aceh Movement, but sympathetic to it. However, contact with the rebels had been possible through his student network.
Nazar's arrest on charges of "spreading hatred" follows the gathering of tens of thousands of Acehnese on November 11 to call for an independence referendum. Rights groups said scores of civilians had been killed when they tried to attend the rally, as security forces fired on vehicles and boats trying to reach the capital, Banda Aceh.
Police chief Superintendent Sayed Husaini said Nazar had provoked hostility against the state by circulating pro-independence posters during a protest on August 17, Indonesia's national day.
The student had then organised a mass gathering "as if Aceh were not part of Indonesia", said Mr Husaini, adding that Nazar's detention was valid for 20 days and could be extended for a further 40 days.
Sidney Jones, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said: "Nazar and other Sira activists are being punished for organising a peaceful rally attended by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Acehnese. If this is incitement, Indonesian democracy is in serious trouble."
Sira members now say they will call off demonstrations planned for next week, while back in Jakarta the mood hardened. Chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said: "The Government will impose an emergency situation in Aceh if they [the Free Aceh Movement] reject the Government's appeal to continue dialogue. This is not an ultimatum or threat. We're just trying to work within a framework of dialogue so that Aceh remains part of Indonesia."
Nazar's arrest marks the first time that the supposedly more tolerant Government of Abdurrahman Wahid has used Articles 154 and 155, the haatzai artikelen [spreading hatred] articles of the Indonesian Criminal Code, against a political activist. Left over from the colonial administration, these statutes were used by the former Suharto government to punish free expression and to discourage pro-independence activities in East Timor.