Confusion as Banda Aceh guerillas call ceasefire
It goes that a suspected thief caught by police (or soldiers, the story varies) apparently looting a tsunami-damaged premises was promptly tied to a nearby corpse until he begged for mercy.
Urban myth it may be but the fact that people readily believe it says much about the behaviour expected and accepted of security forces in the Aceh province where almost three decades of separatist agitation, guerilla warfare and martial law have given uniforms an authority not to be questioned.
The cause of the tensions, the paramilitary group, GAM or Free Aceh Movement (Geraken Aceh Merdeka) has been a fringe issue throughout the tsunami relief operation but it never slipped completely off the radar and is now moving steadily back up the agenda.
Yet the extent of the group’s power, or how they plan to use it as Aceh is rebuilt in the months and years ahead is uncertain with confusing messages coming from the Indonesian authorities and rumour hard to separate from fact.
What is clear is that almost a fortnight ago, GAM’s leadership in exile in Sweden issued a statement reaffirming the movement’s commitment to a ceasefire in light of the ongoing crisis in the province.
This supported what GAM sources on the ground in Aceh had stated, and what the authorities themselves had acknowledged, in the days immediately following the disaster.
But that didn’t stop a whole series of ‘incidents’ being allowed to gain currency over the past two weeks.
By far the most serious was the weekend claim by senior Indonesian military commanders that they had killed 120 GAM rebels for “interfering with the relief effort” since the tsunami, and the reported counterclaim by GAM sources that the victims were in fact civilians.
But before this development there was already talk of a late night shooting in down town central Banda Aceh, as yet unconfirmed. Then there was an exchange of gunfire along the west coast near Meulaboh which UN representatives believe did take place though between whom they couldn’t be completely sure.
Another report had a child suffering serious injuries after picking up a grenade in a village outside Banda Aceh but medics who heard the tale would not discount the possibility of a tragic accident involving a tsunami damaged gas stove.
A security alert which forced aid agencies, including Irish organisations, Concern and Goal, to put off plans for assessment trips along Aceh’s east coast, came to nothing. Attempts by the authorities to dissuade journalists from travelling outside Banda Aceh for security reasons also now seem to be an over-reaction.
It is accepted now that members of a Muslim aid group were robbed in the city but, given the sporadic looting in the area, there is little to suggest the culprits were anything more than thieves.
In fact, the worst case of ‘robbery’ reported by the aid community happened when two agencies arrived in Meulaboh with substantial consignments of essential supplies only to have the local TNI, the Indonesian army, declare it would take care of distribution and send the indignant aid workers packing.
Wherever the truth lies in these stories, the authorities seem content to let them gain ground and allow them add to the confusion already surrounding GAM’s activities and capabilities, which makes the comments of one senior official all the more significant.
Dr Risman Musa is based in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, where he is deputy in charge of religion, culture and tourism at the Co-ordinating Ministry of Peoples Welfare but he was a senior aide to the former governor of Banda Aceh during the martial law period in 2003/2004 and has been posted back to his native city to help lead the relief effort.
“I trust GAM,” he says openly, “because the feeling of sadness we have since the tsunami is an Acehnese feeling, not confined to any one section. If they say they will honour a ceasefire, I believe what they say. For the time being I think everybody concerned with this kind of disaster will come to the same opinion and say it is more important now to solve the problems of the tsunami than the problems of politics.”
Dr Musa may have faith in the enemy but most ordinary citizens do not know who to trust in the conflict. Taxi drivers refuse requests to drive towards the mountains to known GAM strongholds, regardless of how may rupiah are on offer, and people smile awkwardly and claim to have no opinion on the issue if asked by an outsider.
Nuzul, who would not allow his name real be used, drops his voice to a whisper when he explains the difficulties for a villager like himself with TNI posted permanently in the neighbourhood and GAM prowling the hills around it.
“Before, the men in GAM were good. They promised to do things for the people and the people were happy to give them money to prepare like an army. But now the good men are gone and it is just men with guns. They want power for themselves, not for the people.”
“GAM want an independent Aceh and many people were happy with that but now we see Timor (East Timor, which was invaded by Indonesia in the 1970s and gained independence in 2002) and how it struggles as an independent country.
“The economy is very bad and there is no money. If Aceh starts again as a new independent country, we will have nothing.”
Nuzul is not entirely correct for Aceh differs from Timor in that it is rich in natural gas and oil. It is the failure of successive governments to allow ordinary people benefit from this natural wealth that has fuelled much of GAM’s anger.
But there will also be a new source of wealth in Aceh in the form of millions in relief and reconstruction monies which have the potential to make suppliers, contractors and investors very rich indeed.
The phrase used by Dr Risman Musa, “for the time being”, is probably as precise as anyone can be when it comes to GAM for while there is consensus that the movement has no intentions of disbanding, there is no way of knowing exactly when it will return to form or what its new strategy will be.
