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Martial Law Failed, Civil Emergency Abhorred in Acheh By: Yusra Habib Abdul Gani |
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Meanwhile, according to PUSPEN TNI (Information Center of the Indonesian Military), 5/5 2004: “Security restoration operation during the martial law in province Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, TNI have been able to cripple 5,339 GAM rebels and seize 1,045 arms in various types. Of the 5,339 crippled GAM rebels, 1,963 were killed in armed fightings, 2,100 arrested and 1,276 have surrendered voluntarily. The various types of weapons seized are 859 standard military weapons and 186 are handmade ones. While in the counter operations conducted by TNI of Bukit Barisan Commando have successfully crippled 103 GAM personnel and seized 30 units of weapons.” During the martial law as many as 81 thousand TNI troops have been deployed in Acheh during. (The figure was based on the acknowledgement of a parliament member in the meeting of Commission I between the government and the parliament after the first quarter of the martial law). The war has suck Rp15 trillion or about US$ 17 million for the cost of 81 thousand troops, war equipment and logistic supplies. All expenses have been borne by the provincial budget and taken from the central government budget allocation. Where has Indonesia gotten fund for the war? Apparently, IMF provided 400 million US dollars, CGI 3.2 billion US dollars; Japan granted 46 billion Yen in foreign loan to Indonesia, not to mention the grants from Japan, Australia, Canada, Norway, and the U.S.A. This means, politically and economically, international community has been involved in supporting Indonesian regime to defend the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI). The to what result? The war that has deployed 81 thousand troops, with full support from the RI parliament, from the media both local and Indonesian national, with moral and material supports from international financial institutions, with the facility to purchase war equipment from Russia, Holland, the UK and Germany costing more than US$17 million, merely aimed at crushing the National Armed Forces of Acheh (TNA/GAM), proves to have been a fiasco. The 81 thousand TNI troops have been unable to defeat TNA troops. TNA/GAM troops remain in firm control of a number of important areas. The martial law authority has admitted this that 52 villages in Acheh did not participate in the last general election on 5 April 2004. Those areas remain the sovereign territory of the TNA/GAM. Another kind of evidence, at the time of the release of TNA/GAM detainees on 15 and 17 May 2004, the ICRC and PMI and 7 journalists, themselves witnessed how the TNA/GAM remains so much in control of sovereign territory in Acheh that Endang Suwarya refrained from attacking the TNA/GAM in the sovereign territory. What has been defeated is the human values and the civilization of the Achehnese people. To wipe out its disgrace, the martial law authority of Indonesia arrested hundreds of civilians, forced them to confess as TNA/GAM members, detained them, tortured them and banished them to Java without proper legal court trial. It also detained the five GAM negotiators. In the year long fight, Indonesian regime admitted to have been only able to paralyze 50% of TNA/GAM strength, though the TNA/GAM troops were attacked from the air, the sea and the land; they remain intact and safe until now. That remains to be a question now is, whereas all levels of the Achehnese people, ulama, intellectuals, conglomerates, ordinary people, have been forced to demand that the martial law be extended, why then it was changed? The change from martial law to civil emergency with the Presidential Decree No. 43/2004 was said “to make serious efforts to stop armed violence by deploying TNI and Polri (Indonesian police force). In general the situation has been controlled, moreover after the government has conducted the integrated operations that included peace restoration operations, maintaining law and order operations, and economic recovery operations, and strengthening government function and humanitarian activities.” (Megawati, in her speech launching the Presidential Decree No. 43/2004, quoted from Tempo Interaktif, 18 May 2004). Whereas the actual reason is that the Indonesian colonialists are no longer able to finance the war, have failed to achieve the target of the war; changed their tactic from hunting TNA/GAM to hunting money from multinational companies under the pretext of protecting foreign interest in Acheh; TNI, Polri, and the Indonesian Government in Acheh together are gobbling the provincial budget. The statement the spokesman of the Indonesian martial law authority, Naval Colonel Ditya Sudarsono, made proves this, that “during the martial law, 315 TNI/Polri personnel have been found involving in criminal acts such as tortures, killings, rapes, adultery, theft, and illegal logging.” The logical consequence of this war, therefore, is that the World Bank, The U.S.A, Japan, and the E.U. that were involved in organizing dialogue between GAM/ASNLF and the Government of Indonesia (GoI) in Tokyo (18-19 May 2003) should closely look into the political and security realities in Acheh. International institutions that have morally and materially supported Indonesia to fight Acheh, should now realize that the war that GoI has waged in Acheh has failed to crush TNA/GAM and it has proven that such war has not solved the problem. If as of today, International community has looked at Acheh with only one eye, now it is time that it opens its eyes and analyzes deeply and intellectually, without being spellbound by GoI’s propaganda, the reality of what is happening in Acheh, so that then an acceptable political instrument could be found to solve the conflict. It is recognized that the EU Parliament has issued a resolution specifically on Acheh on February 2004 and there has been a detailed report from Human Rights Watch on “Hidden War in Acheh”, but all these have to be followed with concrete actins, otherwise Acheh will continue to remain a global problem for a long time in the future. |