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STATE OF
ACHEH
GAM STATEMENT OF The Free Acheh Movement (GAM) expresses its deep concern over the continuing presence of TNI proxy militias in Acheh despite tomorrow's signing of the Acheh peace agreement (15 August). According to the agreement, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) will be responsible for the decommissioning of illegal weapons held by illegal groups or parties. This means the Indonesian police (Polri) will be responsible for the disarmament of militias. GoI has since denied that any militias exist in Acheh, hence there is no need for their disarmament.
However, according to a leaked TNI intelligence document, there are nine
militia organizations in Acheh, with one organization, the Resistance Front
Against GAM Separatists (FPSG) having 10 branches throughout the territory.
The leaked TNI document shows that these militia organizations are
explicitly linked to local Army Kodim (District Military Command), e.g.
0101/Abes, 0102/Pidie, 0103/Aut, 0104/Atim, 0105/Abar, 0106/Ateng,
0107/Asel, 0108/Agara and one for Langkat based near the border with There are around 10,000 TNI-linked militia members active in Acheh. GAM spokesman Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah said the Indonesian police could not be relied upon to decommission these militias or their weapons. 'It is stretching credibility to believe that Polri will take weapons from militias that have been given to them by the TNI,' Bakhtiar Abdullah said. 'In Acheh, the police still work under the operational control of the army. They are unlikely to act against their own partners in repression.' According to reports from Acheh, militia members have recently started saying that after GAM is disarmed they will kill GAM members. At this time, there is no mechanism available to stop these atrocities,' Bakhtiar Abdullah said. 'This is part of the TNI's plan to destabilise and derail the peace process.' 'If GAM defends itself against these militias who continued to be armed, this will be the excuse the TNI is looking for to re-launch its military operations against GAM and to cancel the whole peace process,' he said.
Bakhtiar Abdullah noted that the TNI had a long history of using proxy
militias to attack activists and civilians, in Acheh and elsewhere such as
East Timor, Papua, Maluku and signed, Bakhtiar Abdullah GAM Spokesman
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