Jakarta – A human rights group suspects there have been "systematic attempts" to shatter the peace in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.
The Jakarta-based Aceh Working Group (AWG) said a multipronged intelligence campaign had been underway to disrupt peace in Aceh, following the peace agreement signed last August by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki, Finland.
The most striking example of the campaign was the recent spate of shootings in which four people were killed, including a former GAM member, and several others injured, the rights group said in a statement Friday. Unidentified gunmen killed three farmers in a forest in North Aceh on Thursday.
Earlier on Monday, a former GAM member was killed in a shootout that involved Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers. The fresh violence took place only days before the House of Representatives passed the bill on Aceh governance into law.
The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) has dismissed speculations the shootings were linked to separatist conflicts in Aceh. The AWG, however, believes otherwise. "The shootings were the peak of systematic attempts to disturb the peace in Aceh," AWG's Otto Syamsuddin Ishak said.
He said the high incidence of armed robbery in Aceh in recent months was another indication of an intelligence campaign. "The armed robberies happened in a period when the AMM had completed its task of disarming GAM; when the rebels should no longer have been armed," he said.
Another worrying trend is the rising illicit trade of small arms and light weapons. "Most illegal small arms went to the members of pro-Jakarta militia groups," Otto said.
The most visible trait in the systematic campaign was the sudden presence of roving vendors in Aceh, even in remote regions.
"They peddle goods that are actually not needed by poor Acehnese such as paintings, ice creams and electrical appliances and it is strange to see them being sold in remote villages," Otto said, adding that the peddlers were all well-built men and had the freedom to get into government offices.
In some locations, the vendors were found to be distributing stickers and leaflets that campaigned against peace in Aceh. He said increased numbers of peddlers had also been observed in other conflict zones such as Poso in Central Sulawesi, Maluku and Papua.
Fellow activist Choirul Anam said the peace monitoring team might encounter problems in dealing with the intelligence campaign given its covert nature. "The Helsinki peace accord has no provision to deal with such an intelligent operation," Choirul said.
The AWG, however, suggested that the AMM enhance cooperation with local police and human rights groups in the investigation into the recent string of violent incidents. "The military should be excluded from the investigating team as it would only compromise its impartiality," Choirul said.