Vaudine England, Jakarta – Scores of Acehnese activists have been arrested in Jakarta in recent days as part of the military's no-holds-barred campaign against separatism in the restive province, Aceh sources said yesterday.
The round-up started on Thursday with the arrest of Faisal Saifuddin, the Jakarta representative of Sira, the student-led Centre for a Referendum that is pushing for a self-determination ballot in Aceh similar to that held in East Timor two years ago. The next day up to 57 other Sira activists were arrested in a shopping area at Pasar Minggu in Jakarta, one Acehnese source said.
He said police claimed they had been following the activists for some time, but the Acehnese community in the capital believes Faisal was forced to reveal the identities or location of colleagues in Jakarta. "Maybe we can say the students should have taken more precautions, but certainly they were caught," the source said. Armed forces and police spokesmen did not answer calls to confirm the arrests last night.
Police backed by the armed forces also have continued to arrest government-recognised negotiators of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh. Six men who have been negotiating for a peaceful solution to the Aceh conflict were picked up on July 20, just days after an Aceh-based attempt to restart dialogue had failed. One man was released the next day.
However, another – Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba – was picked up last week. "All his friends, including me, suggested Tiba should leave Aceh. But he said, 'Why? I haven't done anything wrong'. So he just sat at home and they came to get him too," said an Acehnese worker for a non-governmental organisation who has fled Aceh for his own safety.
What was extraordinary about the arrest of the negotiators was that the men – although card-carrying members of the GAM – had had their personal security guaranteed by the Indonesian Government in a document signed in Geneva in July as part of a peace process being brokered by the Swiss-based Humanitarian Dialogue Centre.
But such details were irrelevant to the security forces, which so far have brushed off attempts by the centre to have the negotiators released or the dialogue restarted. "I saw the agreement whereby this Government guaranteed those men's safety. I read it in black and white. That's why these GAM negotiators took no precautions for their safety. As a result, they are now in jail charged with treason, and they have been tortured there," an Acehnese source said. Hassan Wirayuda, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry representative who co-signed the Geneva agreement guaranteeing the men's safety, has sent a letter to the armed forces questioning the arrests, but it is unclear what impact – if any – this has had.
The heightened danger of being in Aceh in recent days has made the network involved in finding sanctuary for activists overseas more busy than usual. Activists say the several Acehnese restaurants around Jakarta must be avoided because of the presence of military intelligence personnel.
The armed forces have executed, arrested, beaten and intimidated scores of NGO workers, health and social welfare workers and activists in recent months, spreading fear throughout the Acehnese community and forcing underground many people who less than a year ago were able to live reasonably normal lives and speak openly.
"So long as we make no directly anti-military statements, we might be okay," the NGO worker said. "But look at the case of T. Djohan, a retired brigadier general of the armed forces. One day after he made a strong statement against the military and went back to Aceh, he was killed [on May 10]. There is no limit to what the TNI [Indonesian armed forces] can do these days. They are taking advantage of the government vacuum at the moment. While everybody is looking at the new President in Jakarta, the army can take the opportunity to do what it wants."
It is not only Acehnese who are under threat. Two Americans giving training to help torture victims recover from their ordeals were recently visited by 15 soldiers in their hotel rooms and had their possessions checked for arms. Members of the Peace Brigade International, which provides protective company to NGO workers in Aceh, have also been harassed.