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TITLE: Aceh Secession Hobbled By Internal Strife |
AUTHOR: Andreas Harsono |
DATE: February 14, 2001 |
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A thin layer of snow had covered the Fittja Centrum stop, a 40-minute train ride from Stockholm's downtown, when I arrived; everything was white. Commuters hurried from the station, some to waiting cars and many to suburban apartments in walking distance. Small stores had stayed open late and shoppers thronged through them on a recent Thursday night. Two Malays waited for me. One, whom I'd contacted earlier, introduced me to his colleague. It felt a little strange: I was going to interview leaders of the Acehnese liberation struggle, whose soldiers fight fiercely in the humiod, tropical jungles of Sumatra, here in a freezing Stockholm, the exile headquarters of Free Aceh Movement. We talked for a while. One of them told me that Euro News, a 24-hour news channel in Europe, had just reported that Philippines President Joseph Estrada had indicated he was going to resign. He asked me whether Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid could survive the same kind of pressure on his government. I told them that there were important differences between Jakarta and Manila, i.e., in the role of the middle class in both countries, and in the stance of the two vice presidents ?- Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo led the Philippine opposition, while Megawati Sukarnoputri still supported Wahid. I pulled my jacket snugly around me and followed the men to the nearby office of the Free Aceh Movement in Europe. It was only a five-minute walk to their office located on the first floor of a tall apartment building. Two other Acehnese figures appeared, smiling and taking my hand with genuine warmth. "Welcome to our office," said the older one, introducing himself as Husaini Hasan, the chairman of the Free Aceh Movement in Europe (FAME). The younger person identified himself as Yusuf Daud, the FAME secretary-general. We have a little chat. "Goenawan Mohamad used to sit there, and Arief sat right here," said Yusuf, referring to the founding editor of Jakarta-based Tempo magazine and Indonesia's well-known political scientist, Arief Budiman of Melbourne University who used to visit this office. We were sitting in a meeting room about nine feet square, with a television set installed on the ceiling. The red Free Aceh flag stood in one corner. A 14-seat board table dominated the room. My hosts served hot tea, soft drinks and donuts. "We also use this room to teach our children Acehnese language and to conduct our Friday prayer," said Yusuf. Aceh is an oil-and-gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra, where the Free Aceh Movement guerrillas have been fighting for independence since 1978. More than 6,000 people have been killed in the past decade, most of them after Indonesian President Suharto imposed military rule on the province in 1989. Many people in Jakarta and other Asian capitals such as Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, not to mention Washington and Tokyo, have scant knowledge of Aceh. Why brought the rebellion about? What is the historical background? What do the rebels want? Why do they want independence, when so many countries in the world tend to form regional groupings? How could the Jakarta government as well as other administrations in the region solve the Aceh question? A Century Of Confrontation Back in the mid-1970s, Husaini, an obstetrician by training, was working in a hospital in Medan, the capital of northern Sumatra. He had just finished his Ph.D., and was also teaching at the Medan-based Northern Sumatra University. But he was reckless. He saw injustice everywhere in Medan and elsewhere in Aceh. He ideas were similar to those of Hasan di Tiro, a globe-trotting Acehnese aristocrat who had just returned from his posting at the New York office of the Indonesian representative to the United Nations. Both Husaini and Di Tiro were harshly critical of Jakarta. While Aceh produced revenue of more than $10 billion annually, they charged, it was mainly channeled to the corrupt Suharto regime in Jakarta. Di Tiro had also conducted his own research and found out that the once powerful Acehnese kingdom had never legally surrendered to the Dutch colonial government, which had occupied the vast Indonesian archipelago from the 18th Century onwards. Aceh was always unafraid of the Western economic powerhouse. In 1873, the Dutch declared war against the Aceh sultanate and invaded the kingdom, but never really gained control of Aceh. It took decades for the Dutch to confront the growing guerilla resistance. Between 1873 and the defeat of the Dutch by the Japanese in 1942, the Dutch had frequently tried to create an impression for the rest of the world that they had defeated the sultanate and annexed Aceh. Meanwhile, the end of the World War II also prompted an independence drive on the main Indonesian island of Java. Freedom fighter Sukarno (like many Indonesians, Sukarno used just one name) declared Indonesia's independence from The Netherlands in August 1945, but had to spend four years fighting for independence against invading Dutch forces. Finally, the United State intervened and asked the Dutch to open talks with their former colony's new leaders. In 1949 the Dutch signed a treaty with the President Sukarno government, transferring the colonial power of the Netherlands to the newly formed Republic of Indonesia. The new republic was geographically established in the former Dutch-controlled East Indies. Di Tiro recalls the new nation as merely "a Javanese republic with a phony Greek name." Husaini helped Di Tiro to organize a tightly organized underground movement whose struggle reached a new plateau on Dec. 4, 1978, when Di Tiro issued the formal declaration of independence of Aceh- Sumatra. He appointed himself head of state and chose Husaini as secretary of state. Indonesia, according to Di Tiro, was a fraud, an entity that cloaked Javanese colonialism. He was referring to the main ethnic group of Java, whose population lives mainly on the island of Java. Both Indonesia's founding President Sukarno and his successors, General Suharto and President Abdurrahman Wahid, are Javanese. "There never was a people, much less a nation, in our part of the world by that name. No such people existed in the Malay archipelago by definition of ethnology, philology, cultural anthropology, sociology or by any other scientific findings," declared Di Tiro. His statement was splashed on the front page of Medan-based Waspada daily newspaper. Husaini discovered his new role in life when he read the paper and saw his name printed among the list of cabinet members of Hasan di Tiro. That prompted a manhunt by the Indonesian army. Di Tiro, Husaini and their other comrades-in-arms decided to head for the jungles and fight. Yusuf, who was then in his early 20s, helped Husaini carry a heavy old-fashioned press printer and thousands of rolled-up leaflets and documents. Their purpose was to educate the people of Aceh. They had only several rifles and pistyols and were no match for the brutal force of the Indonesian army. Husaini was wounded in an ambush a couple of years later and fled in a three-night boat ride to the shores of neighboring Malaysia. Husaini, whose weigh had fallen from 143 pounds to 106, also realized in a Kuala Lumpur clinic that he'd contracted malaria. He sought refugee status at the Kuala Lumpur office of the UN High Commissioner on Refugees and offered to stay in Sweden. In 1980 he was among the first batch of Aceh immigrants to settle in Sweden. Shortly afterwards, Di Tiro arrived in Stockholm. Today, this small group of Acehnese leaders continue to fight the Jakarta regime to a standstill. Secession Is Better Husaini believes it is better for Aceh to secede from Indonesia. Aceh has been fighting the Dutch, the Japanese and the Indonesians since the 19th Century. Jakarta's army has proved to be more brutal that of the white Dutch rulers, despite the color of their dark brown skins. "How could you claim to be brothers when your soldiers raped our women in front of their husbands?" asked Husaini. Husaini remembered how difficult it was in the 1970s to talk with other Acehnese about the need to separate from Jakarta. Many Acehnese once believed that Aceh was a part of Indonesia and of the Malay culture; now, they say that every Acehnese man wants a gun. In fact, some say that the Aceh freedom movement only became so popular because of the unprofessional conduct of Indonesian soldiers. If a political separation takes place, it is likely that Aceh, and other troubled areas of Indonesia like Papua and East Timor, will sit on the table with Jakarta and form a confederation. perhaps in a loosely organized regional body like the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). I asked Husaini and De Tiro about the lack of international support for an independent Aceh. Unlike the Mindanao cause in the Philippines, which was supported by the Organization of Islamic States, or East Timor, whose successful independence movement was was supported by Portuguese, not a single country in the world supports the independence struggle of the Acehnese for a Free Aceh. Husaini, echoing his political rhetoric, said that doesn't really matter as long as he has the support of the people of Aceh. He theorized that if a UN-sponsored referendum were organized in Aceh, more than 90 percent of Aceh's population of four million would vote for independence. Many Islamic countries including Libya, which in ther past has backed rebel movements in the sourthern Philippines, have informally demonstrated some sympathy toward the Acehnese cause. Many Aceh guerilla fighters were trained in Libya in the early 1980s. Yusuf said that the Jakarta government had initially announced that 34 ambassadors from Islamic countries in Jakarta had agreed to accompany President Wahid to Aceh in December 2000. A government spokesman said their eagerness proved that Jakarta's diplomatic offensive against the pprospective liberators of Aceh had been fruitful. But only 16 ambassadors flew with Wahid to Aceh. "Where are the remaining 18?" asked Yusuf. The incident proved, he said, that his movement is gaining more and more international support. A New Islamic State "What kind of state will a free Aceh be?" I asked the two men. A democratic state with Islam as its ideology, they said. It will respect the rights of minorities, such as the Chinese, Indians and Arabs, as well as those of the Javanese, and will uphold civil liberties. The native Javanese immigrants, who probably form the largest minority group in Aceh, will be treated as Acehnese. I asked him why Aceh should be an Islamic country. "Because in the past we had an Islamic kingdom and it was a good one, an internationally recognized sultanate. Sultan Iskandar Muda was famous because of his wisdom," said Husaini. "Is there particular example [of an Islamic country] that you would like to imitate?" I asked. "Unfortunately, no," Husaini said after a brief silence, as though he were trying to quickly scan the human rights records of prominent newly Muslim nations, such as Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Libya. Indeed, they are not good examples. We changed the subject. "An unnatural unity will not last forever. Even without Aceh, Indonesia will break down some day," said Husaini, adding that a newly established democracy in Indonesia does not guarantee that the powerful Indonesian military is ready to lose its grip on the country. While pouring another cup of tea, Yusuf grinned and admitted that President Wahid is a good man with a good heart. But Yusuf doubted if Wahid could have his instructions being obeyed by Indonesia's notoriously unprofessional generals. I left Husaini's office with a feeling that Husaini really would like to leave the impression that his movement is a moderate one. While walking back to the Fittja Centrum, I remember him saying, "Indonesia will not survive another 10 years." Hope For Change When President Suharto was forced to leave office in May 1998, many Acehnese hoped that his successor, B.J. Habibie, would bring radical change to Aceh. The mood went higher about two months later, when General Wiranto, Habibie's military man, went to Banda Aceh, its capital, and officially ended military rule of Aceh. Wiranto promised soldiers who committed human rights abuses in Aceh would be tried, and called on Aceh's leaders in exile, like Hasan di Tiro and Husaini Hasan, to freely return home. But the elation did not last long. Wiranto was occupied with another military operation in East Timor in a bid to win back the heart and soul of East Timorese people to vote for Indonesia in a U.N.- sponsored referendum. Wiranto lost and his men ran amok; thousands of East Timorese were killed and buildings were burned down. President Habibie was forced to leave office. His successor was President Wahid, a blind and sickly Muslim cleric who became Indonesia's first democratically elected president, who along with Indonesian generals failed to maintain the momentum and win back the hearts and minds of the Acehnese. Wahid, while offering peace amid a series of major local military crises, has done little to bring the officers guilty of past atrocities in Aceh to justice. In the interim, state violence and violations of human rights in Aceh continue. There are arbitrary arrests, disappearances, extra-judicial executions, and village sweeps to search for suspected guerillas have become the order of the day. The simple fact is that, in a militarized and corrupt society such as Indonesia, humanitarian aid, at least in terms of money, will only benefit the bureaucrats and create even more problems, while the suffering people of Aceh receive nothing except bullets and rifle-butts from the Indonesian soldiers. Dissension In The Ranks A couple of days after meeting Husaini and Yusuf, I had the opportunity to meet four other Aceh leaders of the main Aceh freedom movement who speak very negatively about the first two men. Minister of Health Zaini Abdullah, information officers Bakhtiar Abdullah and Muzakkir A. Hamid, as well as Djamil M. Amin, a personal aide to Hasan di Tiro, came to meet me at the Hotel Esplanade in downtown Stockholm. The weather was not friendly and we preferred not go out, but to speak in the hotel dining room. I got the impression that the Aceh movement is basically splintered into three different factions. Interestingly, when they speak Bahasa Indonesia, the common language of Indonesia, all of the factions use the name "Gerakan Aceh Merdeka," which they shorten to GAM, but they use different names in English. The biggest one is the Aceh/Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF), which is led by Hasan di Tiro himself and is based in Stockholm. Husaini Hasan, who used to be the number two man when Di Tiro declared Aceh independent in December 1978, leads the second faction, whose official name is the Free Aceh Movement in Europe. But their united front broke down in 1997 when Di Tiro was hospitalized due to a stroke. By the time he'd recovered from it, Di Tiro had lost his balanced temperament, and due to his age also became senile. "It was a coup. He organized a coup when Tengku Hasan was seriously ill," said Zaini. Another difference is that Husaini's camp would like to set up a democracy in Aceh. Hasan di Tiro, Zaini and his friends would like to have what they call a "successor state" ?- a government which manages the transfer of power as if representing the now-defunct Aceh sultanate. It would be a temporary period while preparing the people of Aceh to decide whether they want to have a republic or a monarchy. "Independence first," said Muzakkir, adding that secondary matters, such as the formation of the government or the future of the Javanese immigrants, will be solved after the Acehnese gain independence. To Zaini and his colleagues, it is better not to talk about the friction, they believe it is a matter that can be settled after independence. They believe that Indonesia is actually a Javanese state, dominating other islands and other ethnic groups, and it is a part of the Javanese strategy to exaggerate frictions in Aceh. The third faction, which is much smaller, is based in Kuala Lumpur and led by Teuku Don Zulfahri, who calls himself the secretary general of the Free Aceh Movement. This faction suffered a blow in June 2000 when Zulfahri was shot at point blank range in the head while eating lunch with three friends in a restaurant in the town of Ampang on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. Many of his friends in Kuala Lumpur believe that the motive for his killing was political. Two men reportedly entered the restaurant and shot Zulfahri three times. The two were said to be hit men. Kuala Lumpur diplomats speculated that the murder stemmed from the split within the movement. "This was probably due to intra-GAM rivalries," one diplomat said. A few weeks prior to his assassination, Zulfahri sent several Internet postings in which he deplored a group he called "bandits led by a Singaporean" ?- apparently a reference to a Hasan di Tiro adviser who is a Singapore citizen. But Kuala Lumpur police say that the Singaporean of Aceh descent is not on their wanted list. I asked Zaini about the ongoing talks in Geneva between his faction and Jakarta. A Jakarta negotiator said both sides have agreed to a cease-fire. But Zaini told me Indonesian soldiers did not go along with the guidelines Jakarta proposed. "We are just defending ourselves. If they keep on doing that, there is no way we could negotiate. It is war," said Zaini. END |