Jakarta – At least 150 Acehnese youths living in Jakarta staged a protest outside National Police headquarters yesterday, demanding the release of Muhammad Nazar, head of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA).
Separately, a human rights campaigner said police have been conducting a covert campaign in Aceh to curb the provinces independence movement and to preserve instability in the territory.
The protesters outside police headquarters were members of the Solidarity Action for Acehnese People (SARA) group, reported Detik. The report said the protesters, who were wearing red-and-white headbands emblazoned SARA, unfurled large banners with slogans such as Aceh Police Chief Should Be Responsible.
Police this month has issued three summons to Nazar (28) after SIRA hung a massive banner in the center of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, on Indonesian Independence Day, August 17. The banner read Neo-colonialism must get out of Aceh in a sly reference to the Indonesian military and government. Police said that was tantamount to fomenting public disorder and inciting hatred of the government. SIRA has been campaigning for a referendum on the future of the province, since the fall of ex-president Soeharto.
Nazar did not meet the first summons because he was organizing a two-day massive rally, during which some 400,000 people demanded freedom for Aceh. He ignored the second summons, but complied with the third and presented himself to police Tuesday and was promptly arrested. The SARA protesters yesterday demanded that police in Aceh Besar district revoke the arrest warrant against Nazar and free him. The group maintained that Nazar is innocent.
It said he should be receive an award from the Indonesian government for his attempts to hold the peaceful mass demonstration for a referendum in Aceh.
When Acehnese were slaughtered, no one was arrested. But why just because M. Nazar held the SIRA mass rally, he is accused of a crime, a SARA member was quoted as saying by Detik. SARA said the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) and police had plotted the arrest and made up the charges.
Apart from demanding Nazars release, SARA also demanded the National Police be held accountable for the deaths of Acehnese who were slaughtered for attempting to join in the mass rally. The group also reiterated calls for international intervention to settle the prolonged conflict in Aceh which has claimed thousands of lives. Despite efforts to open a UN monitoring post in Aceh, the Indonesian government has rejected the offer.
Executive Director of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association, Hendardi, who is acting as Nazars lawyer, yesterday said it appears that police and the military are trying to preserve the instability in Aceh.
In a press statement, Hendardi said the arrest of Nazar on charges of fomenting hostility against the state and disturbing public order, is identical to the methods used by ex-president Soehartos regime to arrest pro-democracy activists and other dissidents.
Hendardi said the only way to resolve the problems in Aceh is to withdraw the military from the restive region and give the Acehnese a sense of justice by taking the human rights violators to court.