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Aceh rebels lose the plot, and the
war
By Richel Langit
JAKARTA
- The news that the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will soon
sign a peace agreement with the Indonesian government
came as a pleasant surprise to Indonesians who had long
wanted to see the bloody conflict there to come to an
end.
Nevertheless, it also invites curiosity as
to why the rebels suddenly agreed to enter into a peace
agreement with the government. The secessionist
movement, which has been fighting for independence since
1976, had always refused to settle for anything less
than a nation separated from the Republic of Indonesia.
Over 10,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, have been
killed in the conflict.
A source familiar with
the rebel group said the GAM leadership overseas was now
fragmented, while field commanders in Aceh suffered a
severe lack of "independence ideology".
Rebel
leaders in Switzerland and Malaysia, according to the
source, are divided as to whether they should pursue
independence or accept the special autonomy status
introduced by the central government on January 1, 2001.
Under the special autonomy status, Aceh would be allowed
to implement Islamic laws, or syariah, and
organize direct elections for heads of provincial and
regency administrations. The rebels would be allowed to
field their own candidates.
Most GAM leaders
overseas support the special autonomy status because
they see it as minimizing the number of victims among
innocent civilians. GAM first hinted at accepting the
special autonomy scheme during peace talks in Geneva in
May when it agreed to use the special status as the sole
basis for future peace talks.
Commanders of the
rebels' armed wing in Aceh do not see eye to eye with
the overseas leadership. The reason is that many of them
entered the movement for the wrong reason. According to
the source, many GAM fighters holding key positions in
Aceh were wanted criminals who joined the movement
between1988 and 1998 when the province was put under a
military operation status, just to avoid prosecution.
These "wayward" GAM leaders now often go around
terrorizing local people to extort money, particularly
after the death of respected GAM commander Tengku
Syafi'ie Abdullah, who was killed in a shootout with a
joint military-police operation team early this year.
The attitude of these rogue fighters is proving
very costly to the movement. Local Acehnese people, and
especially local religious leaders who were previously
sympathetic to the movement, are growing antipathetic
toward the rebels, whom they see as no better than
government troops. Local people have also been giving
information to security personnel about the whereabouts
of rebels - something that never happened in the early
1990s.
Still, no potential commanders are
emerging from the rebels' rank and file, which means
there is no end in sight for the current political
disorientation among GAM fighters. When six religious
leaders and public figures from the troubled province
were invited by the Switzerland-based Henry Dunant
Center to meet with GAM heavyweights in late October,
they prodded the GAM leaders to sign without delay a
government-authored peace accord, despite strong
oppositions from the rebels on two issues of the draft.
GAM leaders are reportedly reluctant to accept the
demand by the Indonesian government that they hand over
their weapons, and the unclear definition of the role of
Mobile Brigade police in Aceh.
If the Indonesian
government is now literally dictating to GAM on the
peace accord, it is because the government knows very
well that GAM is at its weakest point. Indeed, the
movement had unilaterally decided to delay the signing
of a peace agreement until after the Muslim post-fasting
Idul Fitri celebrations that fall on December 6 and 7.
But judging by the reaction of Acehnese people, the GAM
decision is seen as merely designed to create the
impression that they are still calling the shots.
On Thursday, religious leaders, youth
organizations, students, and business people in Aceh
urged the rebels to sign the government-prepared peace
deal.
The government has set a new date,
November 23, for GAM to sign. Clearly, the government
does not want to give the rebels time to consolidate.
From the government side, it is now or never. If GAM
refuses to sign the deal, government troops will go all
out to finish off the rebels. That explains why the
military continues besieging a suspected rebel
headquarters in a swampy area in Cot Trieng village in
Nisam district, north Aceh. Military leaders have openly
said that the siege is aimed at forcing GAM to sign the
peace accord.
A GAM spokesman in Banda Aceh said
last week that the siege might force the rebels to
reconsider signing the peace agreement. "If they keep up
this siege, it will be hard for us to sign a peace
agreement," GAM spokesman Tengku Kamaruzzaman said on
Saturday. So far there has been no official
communication from GAM leaders in Switzerland.
Support for GAM from the international community
seems to have also weakened. Most foreign governments,
including the United States and European countries, have
pledged to help Indonesia maintain its territorial
integrity. This is clearly the outcome of numerous
whirlwind foreign trips by incumbent President Megawati
Sukarnoputri and her predecessor Abdurrahman Wahid.
Members of the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations have also tightened their borders and sea
security to prevent arms smuggling to Acehnese rebels.
GAM's weapons were previously believed to have arrived
from southern Thailand and Mindanao in the Philippines.
Clearly, the rebels have lost both the battle
and war in Aceh. The options left for them now are
ending the war with dignity by signing a peace agreement
with the government, or with crashing humiliation by
refusing to ink the accord.
(©2002 Asia Times
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