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NEWS & LETTERS, November 2002
Indonesia rejects peace in Aceh
Thirty Acehnese and Tibetans demonstrated in front of
ExxonMobil gas stations in New York City Oct. 19 to protest ExxonMobil's
complicity in human rights abuses around the world. In Aceh, the
ExxonMobil refineries are guarded by the Indonesian military (TNI) and give it
assistance. The protest was part of a National Day of Action against ExxonMobil
held by the Stop ExxonMobil Alliance www.stopexxonmobil.org. We protested to stop the continuation of genocide in the
company's area of Aceh, where ExxonMobil's private military force has been
active for years. "Every day, five to seven innocent civilians are
victimized by the company's atrocities," said Munawar Liza Zain, Acehnese
protest coordinator. "The refinery facilities also produce a very loud
sound which damages the ears of villagers around the ExxonMobil gas field,"
Zain added. In Aceh, an American woman, Joy Lee Sadler, 57, and a
British woman, Lesley McCulloch, 42, are still in detention after being arrested
by the Indonesian police in South Aceh a month ago. They were sexually harassed
by the Indonesian police, and only after a lot of pressure from the
international community were they even given access to their lawyers. They are
charged with visa violations, accused of entering Aceh on tourist visas when
they were actually conducting investigations into human rights abuses. Their
arrests give a strong signal to the international community that Indonesia will
stop people from observing the continuing massive human rights violations in
Aceh. Meanwhile, in the peace negotiating process with the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM), mediated by the Henry Dunant Center (HDC), Indonesia still
rejects monitoring by independent international observers. Indonesia wants to
block all international intervention in the conflict, while the Acehnese are
willing to have international third party mediation to stop all the bloodshed in
the region. The peace talks have been occurring for two years without a real
cease-fire ever being implemented in the field. Both parties continue to ambush
each other; the conflict has killed at least 1,600 innocent people this year
alone, mostly in killings by the Indonesian security forces. The Indonesian
military and police (POLRI) always target innocent villagers when they conduct a
search operation, if they cannot find any GAM members. On Oct. 7, the Indonesian
military fired a tank at a grandmother and her grandson in an operation to look
for GAM. The Bali bombing was a shock to everybody, including
Indonesians. That huge crime was committed by people who want to play a role in
Indonesian and South East Asian politics. The Indonesian security forces tried
hard to blame the bomb blast in Bali on the rebel movements in Aceh (GAM) and
Papua (OPM), despite the fact that they had interrogated some suspects who
included a retired Indonesian air force officer and an army soldier. The
Indonesian government just uses lies to appoint a scapegoat responsible for this
massacre! --Radhi Darmansyah, SIRA International Representative, (Aceh Referendum Information Center) |
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