[Marinir] [tempoint'f] Road Map to Aceh Peace?

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http://www.tempointeraktif.com/majalah/free/nat-1.html

No. 20/V/Jan 18 - 24, 2005
National
Road Map to Aceh Peace?

Armed contact sporadically flares up in the midst of the humanitarian
operation now going on in Aceh. Still, the road to peace is not yet closed.

THE candle was almost burnt out, but Hadi Rangkuti, 64, still could not
close his eyes. That night, Meulaboh, a town on the west coast
of Aceh, had been ravaged by earthquakes and tsunami for five days at a
stretch. Electricity was out. Darkness shrouded the town, including the
Superior Senior High School compound, where dozens of police families,
victims of the natural disaster, had taken refuge. Some of the male victims
were soundly asleep on chairs, cradling their Kalashnikov rifles.

"We are waiting for three companies of back-up troops," said Hadi, a
volunteer from the Indonesian Radio Amateurs Organization (Orari)
of North Sumatra.
Hadi, a former member of the Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob) had
taken up broadcasting as a hobby. He may well have been the first volunteer
to restore Meulaboh with contact with the outside world. The tsunami had
completely silenced the town. All telephone communications were dead.
Hadi took it upon himself to set up a radio transmitter three days after the
disaster.

He proceeded to air the important message that the refugee camp of security
personnel, which also served as temporary office of the West Aceh Police
Resort (Polres) command, needed special safeguarding. "This area is a rebel
base," he said. The school compound was located on the edge of a quiet
forest. As the building housed many wounded security personnel and
protection was very weak, Hadi asked for a firearm. If there had been an
attack by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas that night, he said,
"everything might have been finished."

Fortunately, no further calamity occurred, and neither was there an attack.
Nonetheless, the security apparatus in Meulaboh obviously chose to remain on
guard. This was also the case with soldiers removing corpses from ruins of
houses and shops. Although not engaged in combat operations, they carried
their weapons with them.

Prior to the catastrophe, military operations in Aceh had been fierce. That
notwithstanding, the calamitous tsunami dampened the armed conflict
momentarily. One day after the disaster, GAM's headquarters in Sweden
declared a unilateral ceasefire. "This was intended to enable the people of
Aceh to receive humanitarian aid without hindrance," said GAM Prime
Minister, Malik Mahmud, in Norsborg, a place south of the Swedish capital
city of Stockholm. The statement was repeated in an official press release
last week on Wednesday.

However, the gunfire-free atmosphere lasted only a week. Of late, the
nerve-cracking sound of explosions has been filling the air again. From
North Aceh, there was a report that the Matador Team of the 7th Marine
Infantry Battalion had shot two GAM members who were stealthily approaching
a refugee location in Cot Kafiraton village, Seuneudon district, North Aceh
regency, on Thursday two weeks ago.

According to the official Indonesian Military (TNI) version of events, the
action took place when a Marine patrol ran into six GAM members who were
walking on a rice-field dike. "When hailed, they fired," said the
battalion's commanding officer, Lt. Col. Bambang. That triggered a fierce
exchange of fire, which, according to the TNI, left two guerrillas dead,
while the rest fled. The Marines seized two AK-56 rifles and hundreds of
rounds of ammunition.

As the incident happened in the midst of civilian efforts to help the
disaster victims, it raised concerns among aid volunteers. In Solo, Central
Java, the Search and Rescue (SAR) team of the March 11 State University
(UNS) decided to call back its volunteers as it was feared that they might
be caught in crossfire between GAM and TNI.
"The conflict has started to rise in intensity again," said Gatot
Sugihartono, chief of the UNS SAR Team.
According to Gatot, the attacks have now reached Banda Aceh, which means
that the volunteers' lives are in great danger.

The volunteers sent out by UNS include physicians. They do their best to
stay out of trouble, as "there is no guarantee for their protection," said
Gatot.
In his view, the greatest danger is the hostage-taking of doctors by
guerrillas. Gatot related that at one time two of his volunteers came face
to face with gun-toting GAM members. He refused to elaborate on the
incident.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Alwi Shihab, confirmed that
several days after the natural disaster, there was at least one incident of
hostage-taking and two of armed contact.
He said the hostage-taking took place five days after the natural disaster.

One of those who had a close encounter was a physician of the Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam (NAD) Health Service, Dr. Mulya, who acted as chief of a medical
command post.
On that fateful day, Dr. Mulya received a report that disaster victims
needed medical aid at Krueng Raya, Aceh Besar.
Dr. Mulya went to the indicated place together with a colleague.
The place appeared to be located far away from the main road, and when they
arrived, they were surrounded by a crowd of unidentified people.
Mulya managed to escape, but his colleague was caught and has not been heard
of since.
According to Alwi, Dr. Mulya has been evacuated to Medan.

However, a military spokesman for GAM, Rayeuk Muksalmina, denied the
allegations of hostage-taking of doctors or paramedics in his area.
According to Muksalmina, GAM would not resort to sabotaging humanitarian
aid, because many of the disaster victims are their relatives.
He said such action would harm GAM itself politically.
Since the disaster, Aceh has been open to volunteers and military personnel
from around the globe.
"We would be finished in the eyes of the international world," he said.

TNI is intensifying its patrols in critical areas. TNI and GAM had had armed
contact several times, both in Banda Aceh and in outlying regions said the
TNI spokesman for personnel assigned with coping with the Aceh disaster,
Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki. One policeman, he said, was killed when attacked by
GAM on New Year's Day. TNI, for its part, captured seven GAM members
during the last two weeks.
"There is no guarantee that attacks will cease," Yani said.

The intensified patrolling obviously raises the chance of clashes. In East
Aceh, the situation is very tense. According to GAM's military spokesman for
the Peureulak Area, Teuku Cut Kafrawi, his forces have moved back their
defense line 3 kilometers from the road. This means that guerrillas are
prohibited from approaching routes of traffic of humanitarian aid.
They are also under orders not to fire unless they are attacked.
"These are the orders of the GAM Commander, Muzakkir Manaf," he said.

Nonetheless, reports of GAM guerrilla activity keep occurring. One such
report came from Riau. Five GAM members were nabbed there when they
were about to rob a car carrying aid. M. Jamil Yunus alias Sili. Tarmizi
alias
Mentri, Ferry M. Nor, and Tarmizin bin Mahmud, were caught.
"The loot would have been intended for GAM," said Lt. Col. Kamistan Hadirin,
commanding officer of Military District Command (Kodim) 0313/Kampar, Riau,
last week on Friday.
Three firearms of the AR 15 type, and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, were
seized from the five.
Mutual ambushes are nothing new in the context of the Aceh conflict.

Nevertheless, in between the horror caused by the natural calamity emerges
a greater need for a new road map of peace. No one wants a hitch in the
extension of humanitarian aid. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who has been
cited as exploring ways to end the conflict with GAM, deplored the
disturbance in the provision of humanitarian aid. "Such attacks will hamper
rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in Aceh," he warned on Sunday
before last.

No less significantly, for the sake of reconstructing Aceh, President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono himself openly offered peace with GAM.
"Let us rebuild Aceh together," the president said at the State Palace two
weeks ago.

GAM is responding to this extended hand of peace. In Sweden, Malik
Mahmud said that GAM was preparing to meet with the government of the
Republic of Indonesia.
"To ensure success for the ceasefire and ease the suffering of the Aceh
people," he declared in a statement last Wednesday.
It seems that, only after disaster upon disaster, is there an emerging will
for peace.

Nezar Patria, Anas Syahirul (Solo), Evalisa Siregar (Riau)
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