Australian researcher Lesley McCulloch meets three teenagers who have become unwitting players in the long running secessionist war in the Indonesian province of Aceh. The Indonesian armed forces used a combination of enticement and coercion to recruit them as military informers. Now they are effectively prisoners of the separatist rebels.
There is a disturbing new dimension to the conflict in Aceh – children recruited as spies to work for the Indonesian armed forces (TNI). I was confronted by this new reality in a remote corner of East Aceh, one of the most conflict-wracked parts of Indonesia's northwestern province, where separatist rebellion that has been raging for almost thirty years.
After being delivered to a remote meeting point via an elaborate system of pick-ups and drop-offs, I was introduced a fourteen year old boy called M and two young women, 18 year old F and 17 year old R. F and R had just returned from school, and were still dressed in their school uniforms. The teenagers are effectively under "arrest" by the Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF), the group that is fighting for independence from Indonesia. The Front, known in Indonesia as GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka or Free Aceh Movement) has accused the teenagers of working as military informers. All three admit that the accusation is true. The stories they tell are disturbingly similar and suggest a pattern of TNI behaviour that is drawing children into the armed conflict as pawns of the military.
The three teenagers come from different villages, and each of them was "invited" separately to work for the military. M says he was promised Rp 450,000 (about AUD $90) a month, while F and R were each promised Rp 500,000 a month. There is no doubt that the salary was attractive in a country where the economy is struggling, and where Rp 450,000 a month is more than many adults can hope to earn. However all three add that both they and their families were threatened with punishment if they refused to comply with the military's requests.
M says he worked for TNI for 4 months before being captured by ASNLF fighters. However M says he only ever received one month's pay from the TNI. Similarly, both F and R say that they worked for the military for five months but received no money. During this time they continued to live with their families. M says the TNI visited him every day for a report. The two young women allege that the military visited them often, asking for sexual favours. ASNLF spokesman for East Aceh, Ishak Daud remarks that many young women are befriended by the police and military and then recruited as informers. They have no choice, says Daud as their lives and the lives of their families is threatened. All three teenagers confirmed that this is the case.
Despite the fact that the teenagers were probably unwilling recruits to the military, the ASNLF says that they made effective operatives. Spokesman Ishak Daud claims that between them they were responsible for the death of at least 7 unarmed ASNLF supporters. "We know of only 7 deaths" he told me, "but in fact there may be more".
M, F and R are not the only child informers pressed into service by the TNI. ASNLF says it has five other children under "arrest" and M reports that six friends around his own age are working for the military. F describes a similar situation:
"So many of my friends work for TNI, all of them girls" she says. "We were all flattered by the attention they gave us, but now it has turned into a nightmare." She says that all of her friends are now very scared.
"Normally the punishment for informers is death" says Ishak Daud. "But, I am human, and these are only children. The problem for us now is what to do with them. Since they were captured three weeks ago they stay in the village with us and we send them to school every day. We also educate them about what is right and wrong. They are helping us with our investigation. The use by the military and police of children is something we must expose. The problem is that the TNI and police have posts very close to the civilian population. This causes fear and terror and leads to the situation we have now."
All three say they have been treated well by the ASNLF. "At the time I was offered the money, I was happy to help the military" says R. "But then I realised that there was no money, only threats and I was very afraid. But what could I do? I am glad that the ASNLF caught me and I have apologised for what I have done." F says she tried to resist the "requests" for help but the TNI threatened to rape her and then shoot her.
"Please let the international community know what is happening to the children in Aceh" R pleaded with me. She says that her friends who are still "working" for the security forces have not been paid, are very afraid, but don't know what to do.
M says that he wants to go back home to his family. His is a very troubled and sad young face of the conflict. Daud admits that the families of all three have requested that their children be returned home. He says that the ASNLF is ready to set the children free but warns that their lives would be at risk if it did so. "We don't know what to do with them" says Daud. "If we send them back to their villages the military will come for them, probably to kill them, knowing they have helped us with our investigation."
There are two issues that must be addressed here. The first is the military's exploitation of children to work as informers, drawing them into the conflict and exposing them to the great risks. The second is the question of how to return these young informers to their families with a guarantee of their personal safety. Perhaps the intervention of an international non-government organisation is the solution in this case. But it is not enough to pick up the pieces in cases like those of M, R and F. The international community and the Indonesian government must also take preventive action. These three teenagers can name the military officers who recruited them, but fear that giving that information to the authorities will only bring them and their families further trauma. The military personnel who are recruiting these young people must be brought to justice for the crimes that they have perpetrated and the young lives they have effectively destroyed.
What of the teenagers hopes for the future? They are sure of only one thing – that they are now locked in a potentially deadly situation. Around them, the conflict in Aceh is already proving more violent this year than last. The Aceh office of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute (LBH) estimates that 25 people were killed and 80 arrested in the first month of 2002. Self-congratulatory remarks by TNI officers about the recent shooting of the ASNLF military commander, Abdullah Syafie'ie show that the armed forces are committed to seeking a military solution to the conflict and will blatantly disregard any serious attempt at dialogue with the rebels. Yet the general feeling among many of the population in Aceh is sadness at Syafie'ie's death and anger at the Jakarta government.
While the international community has been focussed on events in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Israel and Palestine a deadly game is being played out in Aceh. The results of President Megawati's order to the military and police to solve the problem in Aceh are evident. Megawati has given the green light to a military that is struggling to attain any level of professionalism. The result is a growing number of deaths, tortures and arrests. There is also an increase in the number of robberies and houses burned by the security forces as they "sweep" through Acehnese society searching for members of the independence movement.
Not only are the military and police destroying the economic and physical infrastructure of Aceh, they are also destroying the people. They are in fact, breeding a new generation of pro-independence supporters. This is a very dangerous game indeed, and one which the international community could and should persuade the Indonesian government to cease. In the young faces of M, R and F, I should have seen youthfulness and hope for the future. I saw only insecurity and fear. Daud appeals to the international community to play a role in returning these children back to a normal civilian life. The international community has a duty to respond to his request.
[Lesley McCulloch is a lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Tasmania, Australia and co-founder of the Aceh Humanitarian Assistance Fund, which provides help to civilians in emergency need as a result of the Aceh conflict.]