That someone, peace monitors and Acehnese citizens suspect, is the Indonesian military. After being bogged down fighting the Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, for 26 years, Jakarta’s generals grudgingly agreed to an internationally brokered ceasefire in December. Despite some early signs that the peace might hold, locals now say the military, or TNI, is engaging in a dirty-tricks campaign to push out the monitors and scuttle the ceasefire. Although the GAM’s continued calls for autonomy may have provoked TNI hard-liners, analysts believe the military is anxious to find–or create–any excuse to renew military operations against the rebels. “The TNI is acting in Aceh out of pride, and they don’t believe the civilian government can solve the problem through negotiation,” says Salim Said, a military analyst. “They never negotiate with separatists–they crush them.”
For its part, the GAM has provided the TNI with plenty of political ammunition. When the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre helped hammer out a deal in December, rebel negotiators agreed to drop their claim to independence in exchange for special autonomy, which includes an offer from the Indonesian government for a much larger share of oil and gas revenues as well as direct elections for Parliament next year. But despite seeing some remarkable improvements on the ground–killings in Aceh have dropped by about 85 percent since the ceasefire–the rebels have used the pause in fighting to recruit new members, expand their own shadow government and tell the local population that independence is on the way. The GAM’s civilian leaders openly admit as much. “We won’t give up our claim to independence,” says rebel negotiator Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba. “The agreement both sides signed was just for a ceasefire.”
But almost no one else sees it that way. The Indonesian government fumed last week that the GAM was threatening the entire peace process by continuing to insist on its right to break away. Its case has only been bolstered by other GAM violations of the ceasefire agreement, including extorting “taxes” from local residents and kidnappings for ransom. And the United States, the European Union and Japan, which have promised Aceh millions of dollars in reconstruction aid if the peace process stays afloat, are not buying the rebels’ position. “GAM is incorrect in believing that any part of the peace process has to do with independence,” says Ralph Boyce, the American ambassador to Indonesia. “There’s no country I’m aware of that would support the separation of Aceh.”
For its part, the TNI appear to have lost patience with diplomacy. Residents from the central Aceh town of Takengon say that the military employed Javanese migrants to burn down an office of the Joint Security Committee, the international peace-monitoring group, last month. Two weeks ago another mob of about 500 Javanese torched a peace-monitor office in Langsa, in east Aceh, having arrived there in a convoy of military trucks, say witnesses. Locals claim two military intelligence officers escorted the mob. The TNI has denied responsibility for both attacks, claiming the rioters were normal Acehnese conducting “spontaneous demonstrations in support of the unitary state of Indonesia.” Sources close to the peace process reject this explanation. Worse, analysts and human rights workers fear the military wants the monitors out of Aceh so it can launch a massive crackdown on the rebels. “It’s the same strategy that they used in East Timor and it’s very nasty,” warns one Western security expert in Jakarta.
One more chance for cooperation is at hand. The Indonesian government, the GAM and international monitors are expected to hold an emergency joint meeting this week to discuss salvaging the peace process. If progress isn’t made soon, there may no longer be a peace to monitor.
