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Casualties mount in Aceh clampdown

Source
Financial Times - July 20, 2003

Shawn Donnan, Lhokseumawe – Major General Bambang Darmono believes his mobile telephone proves the popularity of Indonesia's military operation against the separatists in Aceh province.

In the telephone's memory are 630 text messages. The vast majority, he claims, have been admiring comments. "Look," he says, "this just came in." "Bambang," he reads out. "I am expecting a baby soon. Because you are a man I admire, could you please name my child?" The normally gruff general sits back and chortles. "I have a lot of support from the people," he says.

Two months after President Megawati Sukarnoputri imposed martial law on Aceh and launched Indonesia's largest military operation since its 1975 invasion of East Timor, there are signs the operation is winning popular support almost everywhere in the country – except Aceh. General Darmono – and his telephone – have become famous and Mrs Megawati is enjoying the benefits of a resurgent nationalism.

But Aceh, which sits at the northern tip of Sumatra and has been home to a separatist conflict since 1976, is paying an increasing toll in terms of casualties. The military campaign is also cutting it off from the rest of Indonesia and the outside world.

From the beginning, Indonesian non-governmental organisations and journalists have been put under intense pressure to toe the line in Aceh. But in recent weeks Jakarta has imposed stringent travel restrictions on foreigners.

The government insists it is not trying to ban foreigners. But the strict limitations on travel, as well as the bureaucracy involved, have raised fears Jakarta is putting a paperwork curtain around the province. International humanitarian organisations fear they are being pushed out and visits by foreign diplomats and journalists are becoming rare.

In a five-day visit, the Financial Times was the first foreign news organisation allowed into Aceh since the implementation of the new rules. But to do so the FT had to accede to severe restrictions on reporting.

The clampdown on information, analysts say, is the harshest since the fall of General Suharto in 1998 and has raised big question marks about the brutality of the operation.

"There is some information coming out but it is extremely difficult and everyone who tries to get information out is by definition putting themselves at risk," says Sidney Jones, head of the Jakarta office of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group.

Local people in Aceh say the human rights situation has worsened markedly since the introduction of martial law. Dozens of cases of rape, kidnapping and beatings have been reported, they say. There are clear indications of extra-judicial killings. Many of the dead were civilians.

Ms Jones says there are signs the military is employing some of the same tactics it used in East Timor before the former Portuguese colony won its freedom from Indonesia in 1999. There is evidence, that the military has backed militias in Aceh.

The military denies this. It has even disarmed self-protection groups formed by civilians sympathetic to Jakarta, General Darmono says, although he admits helping to train them in "self defence".

According to its figures, the military has killed almost 500 members of the GAM separatist movement in the two months of the operation while about 1,000 have either been detained or surrendered. Only about 200 weapons have been seized during that time, however.

General Darmono argues the low number of weapons seized is due to the fact that GAM has only an estimated 2,000 weapons for its 5,000-6,000 active members or that most of the people killed in the operation so far have been unarmed "GAM spies" rather than civilians.

"If we kill civilians then it destroys the good of winning the hearts of the people," he says.

However, as part of its campaign against GAM, the military has been herding villagers into government-run camps to clear the battlefield. More than 1,400 villagers are now living in a camp in Sigli. They say they were forced to leave their homes in the Tiro district by soldiers. "We are just farmers. I don't even know what GAM is," says one woman.

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