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Jakarta
offensive in Aceh drags on
By Kafil Yamin
JAKARTA - Indonesia's armed forces might be winning the propaganda war in Aceh,
thanks to "embedded" journalists, but activists warn that peace remains out of
sight after more than a month of military operations.
Instead, they say, the offensive in Aceh province that began on May 19 has
taken a severe toll on civilians and on the rule of law.
"Instead of bringing peace to Aceh, the military operation had claimed a
significant number of civilian casualties, and undermined democracy and human
rights," Ori Rachman, coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and
Victims of Violence (Kontras), told a discussion this week organized by the
Indonesian Muslim Students Association.
A separatist rebellion by the Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian
acronym GAM, has been festering for 27 years. In December, the Geneva-based
Henry Dunant Center mediated a ceasefire that called the rebels to disarm and
for the troops to withdraw to barracks.
The accord brought the resource-rich province its first period of peace in
decades, but the calm evaporated in May after the process collapsed and
President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared a state of military emergency in Aceh.
Still, some analysts say, it appears that many among the Indonesian public
continue to be open to - or believe - the military's version of events.
Many Indonesian journalists have been moving about with the troops, a trend
that critics frown upon as undercutting independent reportage but which some
analysts also keeps the military on their toes in Aceh.
"The nature of openness to media coverage, because of the presence of embedded
journalists in the war arena, has made the TNI [Indonesian military] behave
more professionally," military analyst M T Ariffin conceded in an interview.
"Civilian casualties have been minimized and TNI is compensating war victims
with humanitarian aid. Soldiers are also being disciplined."
An Indonesian military court recently sentenced eight soldiers for harassing
and beating civilians in their hunt for GAM rebels, after reports on their
behavior had been publicized by local journalists allowed to cover the troops'
operations.
But Ariffin also said that the TNI been using the term "armed unidentified
persons" to describe GAM to reporters, in order to justify why the rebels had
to be crushed.
"The burning of about 500 schools, attacks on public transport and the killing
of civilians have all been blamed on these 'armed unidentified persons'. The
fact is that the public seems to be believing TNI," he said.
Sidney Jones, a director with the International Crisis Group, said the
Indonesian broadcast media, with some very brave exceptions, had "rolled over
and played dead".
"What you see on television news is video footage taken by embedded journalists
of soldiers storming GAM strongholds, of tearful children standing around
burned schools, of soldiers distributing rice to needy villagers, or of wounded
soldiers being visited in hospitals by their proud commanders," she said.
Added Jones: "So, while international concern mounts, domestic support is high,
and Indonesia is stepping up its campaign to have GAM declared a terrorist
organization."
Ori said that so far, some 150 civilians have been killed and more than 60
persons have gone missing during the military operation. According to Kontras,
the operation has also forced more than 30,000 civilians to flee their homes
for security reasons, and relief agencies fear the number of internally
displaced people might exceed 100,000.
Ori added that Kontras obtained its figures from the accounts of victims'
family members and by cross-checking the bodies removed by the Indonesian Red
Cross.
Government figures, however, differ from Kontras' statistics. Sudi Silalahi,
secretary to the coordinating minister for political and security affairs, said
last Friday that 62 people had gone missing and there had been only 57 civilian
casualties since the start of the armed forces' operations.
This week, too, 90 local and international groups called on the United States,
the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands to end all military
sales to Indonesia.
"The military offensive in Aceh, which is Indonesia's largest military
operation since the invasion of East Timor in 1975, is now proceeding at a
level that is causing widespread civilian loss of life and the destruction of
Aceh's public infrastructure," said their statement.
It added: "Human-rights groups fear massive violations of human rights and are
especially concerned about the safety of human-rights defenders and
civil-society activists. Numerous reports of extrajudicial killings and torture
are emerging from Aceh, including of students and boys as young as 12."
Ori said the military operation posed a threat to the democracy that Indonesia
got back after the fall of Suharto in 1998. "Police sweeps and surveillance
operations targeting Acehnese, who are suspected of being GAM members, are now
normal throughout the country, disrupting the liberties of civilians," he said.
Writing in the English-language daily Jakarta Post, Tiarma Siboro, one of the
first batch of 54 "embedded" journalists with the military, asked: "Embedded
journalists, what are they really good for? Can they be expected to be
objective when their life is dependent on the very same people they are
reporting about?"
But the days of privileged information from the armed forces for these embedded
journalists might soon be over.
In new regulations last week, authorities in Aceh banned the press from
publishing the names of places where military troops were positioned, military
maps or sketches, and the names of aircraft and ships used during offensive
operations.
The military required field reporters to record all interviews with troops, and
said "journalists can only publish or broadcast excerpts of the interviews
after the missions in question have been carried out".
Aceh Military Operation spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel A Yani Basuki has stressed
that military authorities had the right to expel journalists violating the
regulations.
Ori countered: "The military and government have adopted policies that restrict
the rights of journalists and activists from non-governmental organizations
from entering and monitoring what is really happening in Aceh."
But Salim Said, another military analyst, remained adamant that the public was
not hostile to the military operation. "If there's proof that many civilians
have been killed unnecessarily, there will be a strong reaction. But so far
efforts by Komnas HAM [the national human rights commission] to reveal
human-rights abuses by the military have not convinced the public," he said.
(Inter Press Service)
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