Jun 11, 2005

Indonesia Intensify Fighting against Rebels


While negotiations between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian government continues, fight against rebels in West Papua, South Moluccas and Sulawesi intensify
Untitled Document

By Fabio Scarpello

JAKARTA - While negotiations between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and Indonesian government officials in Helsinki, Finland, have given rise to a moderate optimism, fighting continues unabated in Aceh. At the same time, two bombs exploded in Central Sulawesi killing 22 people and threatening the fragile peace between Christians and Muslims in the province. Across the sea, in the Maluku Islands, the killing of eight people by radical Islamists and unruly police officers has brought back memories of sectarian violence. Meanwhile, news filtering out of far-flung Papua province paints a dramatic picture of continuous violence and rising tension.

Aceh

The fourth round of peace negotiations between GAM separatists and a delegation of Indonesian government officials ended in Finland on Tuesday. Both sides said discussions went well and agreed to meet again in Helsinki on July 12. Yet on the same day, three alleged GAM rebels were killed when their boat was blown up by the Indonesian military (TNI) off the coast of Aceh's northern district of Pidie. The dead are among the more than 260 alleged rebels killed by the TNI since peace talks began in January.

While negotiations have brought positive results, doubts remain about the likelihood of reaching a final settlement for the 30-year-long conflict. Neither GAM nor Jakarta seem to have full control over troops on the ground in Aceh, and it is feared that an eventual peace agreement would not be respected by some factions of the warring parties.

The Indonesian government has shown little will to compromise during the negotiations. Latest indications have revealed that GAM will not be allowed to organize itself into a political force and contest regional elections soon after an eventual peace agreement is signed. Such demands, considered a "must" by the rebel group, require a constitutional change that Jakarta seems unwilling to make.

In the meantime, the political mood in the capital is shifting toward an even more uncompromising position. The House of Representatives, dissatisfied with the "insignificant" results of the latest peace talks, demanded an end to the negotiations, and the House Defense Commission is said to be against the possible involvement of the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in monitoring the implementation of an eventual peace deal - as vented in Helsinki.

Jakarta's offer is still a hazy "special autonomy", which reads as "status quo" in Banda Aceh. In the past months, between negotiation rounds, GAM has dropped its claim to independence while Jakarta has lifted the civil emergency status weighing on the province for the past year. The latter move, however, was not followed by a partial withdrawal of troops - as demanded by GAM - and has not led to any significant change on the ground.

Central/West Sulawesi

The specter of international terrorism and sectarian violence returned to Central Sulawesi after two bombs exploded in a crowded market in Tentena on May 28. The blasts' 22 victims marked the highest bomb death toll in Indonesia after Bali, where 202 people were killed nearly three years ago.

Although police have been active in pursuing several leads, it remains unclear who was behind the bombing. It is generally assumed that the perpetrators' aim was to reinitiate the sectarian violence that led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people in the area during 1999-2001.

Tentena is a predominantly Christian town in a region equally split between Muslims and Christians. The religious divide makes Central Sulawesi particularly susceptible to provocations. Still, the only retaliation recorded to date is the stoning of Tentena's mosque by a group of angry Christians, shortly after the bombing.
Yet tension remains high. After all, Central Sulawesi, and Poso in particular, is thought to be a fertile ground for radical Islamic groups. Among the bombing suspects is a group headed by a man called Yani, who is accused of leading recent attacks on a Christian village in Western Sulawesi. In a recent report, the International Crisis Group highlighted the risk of Poso-based radical Islamic groups moving to Mamasa, West Sulawesi, to stir sectarian violence.

Tentena's remoteness and the virtual absence of Westerners seems to exclude the direct involvement of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a Southeast Asian regional terrorist group known to have run a training and recruitment camp in the Poso district a few years ago. Hours after the May 28 bombing, Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the attack could have been perpetrated by fugitive Malaysian JI members Azahari Husin and Noordin Mohammad. The two bomb-makers are wanted in connection with several attacks in Indonesia.

A particularly disturbing scenario that has emerged in the last few days points to a group of local politicians who might have masterminded the attack to divert attention from their case. The politicians, all former Poso government officials, are currently in jail for having siphoned billions of rupiah destined to those internally displaced during the regional unrest.

Maluku Islands

Violence escalated on this eastern island chain after radical Islamists and unruly members of the police led a punitive expedition against a police barrack on Seram Island on May 16. The attack, which left eight people dead, was meant to punish officers perceived to be protecting a Christian village. It also brought back memories of the 1999-2001 Muslim-Christian battles that killed up to 9,000 people on these shores.

The Malukus, or Spice Islands, are split along religious and ethnic lines. The latter is partly due to former president Suharto's transmigrasi (relocation) project that moved thousands of Muslim Javanese to - among others - the predominantly Christian Maluku Islands. Those Muslims quickly climbed the social ladder, fueling discontent. The added spice was provided by a moribund secessionist movement supported by Christians but opposed by most Muslims. When fighting broke out, some soldiers sided with the Muslims while some elements of the police sided with the Christians. Laskar Jihad, apparently now a disbanded paramilitary Islamic group, sailed from Java to fight alongside the local Muslims with the tacit - and not so tacit - support of the TNI. Some of Laskar Jihad's former affiliates are believed to have joined JI.

The attack in Seram is the first major attack in the region since a grenade was thrown by two unidentified motorcyclists into the predominantly Muslim neighborhood of Batumerah, in the Maluku capital, Ambon, on March 22. The explosion injured five people and was soon followed by a reprisal in which Muslims destroyed the back of a minivan carrying Christians in nearby Kapaha and clubbed its passengers, including a mother and her child.

Violence was also recorded in February. Two people were gunned down at a beachside karaoke club in Ambon and two more were injured in a separate attack, when a ship sailing off Buru Island came under fire by gunmen traveling in a speedboat.

The Malukus' latest major unrest began just more than one year ago, when 41 people were killed during last April's sectarian clashes sparkled by the 54th anniversary of the outlawed South Maluku Republic. During that celebration Christian separatists rallied and came into contact with Muslim nationalists. In the several days of violence that followed, hundreds of buildings were torched and bombs were detonated, while unidentified snipers - believed to be rogue members of the TNI - shot civilians and police officers.

West Papua

On May 26, a Papua district court sentenced separatist leaders Philep Karma and Yusak Pakage to 15 and 10 years, respectively, in jail for treason. Their crime consisted of holding a separatist meeting last year. Their trial sparked violent clashes between locals and police.

The disturbance was just the latest in the endless series of reports trickling out of Papua, where international observers, journalists and aid workers are forbidden to enter.

The region seems on the verge of exploding. Church groups and local media report that the TNI is preparing to intensify its ongoing crackdown against the Free Papua Movement (OPM), a political organization with a military wing fighting for independence.

On March 10, the houses and the livestock in Nggweyage village were entirely plundered and burned down by the TNI. The attack was part of the ongoing offensive in West Papua's central highlands, where 6,000 people have been forced to flee into the mountains. Such TNI tactics have led to a shortage of food and - according to local reports - some displaced people have died of starvation.

To heighten the tension, news has surfaced of the "presumed-disbanded" Laskar Jihad Islamic group setting up training camps in the area. And reports continue to emerge of human-rights violations by Indonesian security officials, accused of torture, rape and illegal detention. Unofficial figures say 800,000 people have been killed in Papua since the region was incorporated by Indonesia on May 1, 1963.

Papuans' 40-year-long fight for self-determination is compounded by ethnic tension with Muslim (mainly) Javanese relocated in the area in the transmigrasi program. Muslims now account for 770,000 of Papua's 1.8 million inhabitants. In Papua, ethnic Javanese are virtually in control of the local administration, and many Papuans, who are predominantly Melanesian Christians and Animists, feel they have been reduced to second-class citizens on their own land.

The Indonesian government has said recently it intends to divide Papua into five provinces by 2009. Locals argue that the move violates the 2001 Special Autonomy Law designed to give Papuans full democratic rights and a larger share of the province's vast natural resource wealth. Yet some of its crucial points are yet to be implemented.

Fabio Scarpello is AKI-ADN Kronos International Southeast Asia correspondent.