Military force never settles ethnic-related conflicts for good

By Kazi Mahmood, IOL southeast Asia correspondent

Kuala Lumpur, June 12 (IslamOnline.net) - The war in Aceh will turn into a life long struggle for the majority of the people in the province well after the current war is over while Jakarta is not assured of having a free ride even if it defeats the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), experts in Malaysia and Indonesia told IslamOnline.net Thursday, June 12.

While fierce fighting is still going on and the military is finding it more difficult to crush the GAM swiftly as promised, the people in the province have not been spared. One thing is certain, the Acehnese are not ready to forget the years of what they call “obvious oppression and economic destruction” by Jakarta in their province, according to observers.

The Indonesian military is trying to avoid civilian casualties in this war but reports of alleged atrocities against civilians has confirmed the brutal nature of the soldiers and confirmed anti-Jakarta sentiments among the Acehnese IslamOnline.net was told Thursday.

The people of Aceh, a mixture of Arabs, Chinese, Europeans and Indians that forged into one separate nation within the Indonesian archipelago, will never subdue to Jakarta and will continue the fight for freedom in many forms after the war is over, promised a lecturer working in a Jakarta University.

“The plight of the Acehnese dates back to the integration of the province within the Indonesian Republic in the late 1950’s. Then there was promises that a unified Indonesia will be grateful to Aceh and will respect the terms of the merger,” said Abdullah Mahmud, teacher of Islam at the university in South Jakarta , told IslamOnline.net.

Indonesia under Ahmad Sukarno, the first President of the largest Muslim nation on earth who is also the father of the current President Megawati Sukarnoputeri, violated the trust of the Acehnese, Abdullah added.

“They came for the resources of the province. They left the people abandoned, ripped them off of their independence and of their homes. In the years during the reign of General Suharto, the Javanese (a different race from the Acehnese yet also of Islamic faith) exploited Aceh to the maximum.

“They also killed, raped and kidnapped. We still have lists of people missing from Aceh and bodies of some of them were fished out of Australian waters in the past, half eaten by sharks or butchered by their captors who were surely members of the Indonesian special and secret armies,” said Abdullah who is also an Acehnese.

An independent government commission ordered by President Burhanuddin Habibie during his tenure after the fall of Suharto had indeed affirmed that abuses by soldiers had occurred in Aceh, however no action had been taken and this has angered the nation of Acehnese, Abdullah added.

Another Acehnese living in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia told IslamOnline.net that the struggle of the Acehnese people is not only one against the oppression of the Javanese people against a nation that was independent since its creation.

The businessman who sells herbal products from his province to the Malaysians in the streets of Masjid India and who has made Malaysia his home since the outbreak of the war in the 1970’s said Aceh will never bow to Jakarta .

“There is only one solution to this problem. A federated autonomy where the Acehnese will have the free will to decide who runs their lives and this will automatically be the GAM of Hassan Tiro and not the Golkar Party or the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) of Megawati Sukarnoputri,” Obed Ullah said in a laconic voice.

Jakarta has to accept the facts. They will defeat the GAM militarily maybe, that is also not that certain but they will not prevent the Acehnese from forming their own political party to gain their political freedom from Indonesia sooner or later, said Obed.

The GAM on its part regrets that the conflict involved two Muslim groups of different racial origin and that it takes place in a time when Muslims are supposed to be united to face bigger and greater challenges in the current world.

“However, the fight must go on and the GAM will disintegrate in the public, as it has already done so in many places, and will wait until the time comes for election. The shock will be greater for Jakarta when it is understood that the Acehnese will control the local parliament and that anything can happen then,” added Abdullah.

As it is clear that Jakarta ’s war against the GAM is sending the wrong signal to the people of Aceh, the military’s declared humanitarian mission in salvaging the people of the province is bound to fail too.

“Years of oppression and domination as well as siphoning of our resources will not be forgotten just by a few Presidential decrees or by a military offensive to kill our struggle,” said a GAM member who lives in Kelantan.

“We had to take refuge in Malaysia following terrible abuses by the TNI (Indonesian Military), we will never forget that. The people in Pidie, Bandah Aceh and other towns in the province too will not forget Indonesia ’s terror against them,” added the young GAM element who did not want to be named.

“I travel to Aceh regularly; I can tell you that the military operation there is not what it seems to be in the papers. It’s not an all TNI affair and more of them will die when they cross the path of the GAM fighters,” he said.

“ Indonesia is hoping there will be unity and has decided to kill more Acehnese to achieve that. It’s an incongruent way to achieve unity and this war will be part of the history of Aceh. Killing GAM members is also killing an Acehnese freedom fighter and a member of our families, they must not forget that,” Obed added to IslamOnline.net.

President Megawati Sukarnoputeri

Indonesia imposed martial law on Aceh on May 19. It later on started a massive military operation to crush the GAM a Muslim group fighting for an independent state.

The group has its leadership based in Sweden and is headed by Hasan Di Tiro, a prince from the long royal lineage of Acehnese that fought the Dutch and the Japanese before the integration of the state in the Republic of Indonesia. It’s been a long 27 years old struggle that does not seem to be ending despite the current military onslaught, experts told IslamOnline.net.

They also added they feared the conflict may destabilize the entire South East Asian region that would be forced to increase security in several countries including Malaysia , Thailand and even Singapore .