World Tribune.com


A SENSE OF ASIA

Aceh: terrorist sanctuary in the making?


See the Sol Sanders Archive

By Sol Sanders
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Sol W. Sanders

May 29, 2003

It is not an accident, as the Communists used to say, that the Indonesian military began an all-out offensive against the pro-independence guerrillas in the north Sumatran province of Aceh on the anniversary of independence for East Timor. Peace talks brokered by well-meaning European do-gooders probably never had much of a chance. An armistice had begun with ill defined terms, probably the only way it could have, but with disagreements so fundamental that it never seemed likely they would be resolved.

The central one, independence for the resource-rich area, has never been a concession anyone in Djakarta was prepared to make. Certainly not President Megawati Sukarnoputra, IndonesiaÕs lackluster president but heir to the demagogic mantle of her father, Soekarno. Indecisive on every issue [except shopping in Hong Kong when she was asked to defuse another regional conflict by the erstwhile president, Wahid], Megawati has always taken an implacable line on Aceh ø autonomy, however ill-defined, but not independence.

She has support not only among the military but probably with the majority of Indonesians, certainly among her fellow Javanese who constitute the majority of the population. With its abundant resources [including oil and gas] milked by the Djakarta regime for years, it is prototype of complaints of all the Outer Islands against deficit Java. Aceh has a long history of opposition to outside control, whether pre-colonial when its sultanate was for a brief period a regional power, under the Dutch, and or, virtually, since Òthe transfer of sovereigntyÓ from the Royal Netherlands East Indies in 1950 to the Djakarta regime.

The Indonesian military has been straining at the leash. It wants to regain its macho role as guardian of the unity of the regime, perhaps the only ÒnationalÓ institution built on its mythological role as the deliverer of independence. That is not a small feat in a country of more than threethousand inhabited islands that stretch across a sixth of the worldÕs circumference and include a huge variety of races, cultures and lifestyles.

The bitter struggle over East Timor, which not only ended in its separation, but in the disgrace of the military for their atrocities during the bitter guerrilla warfare, was a lump the Indonesian military and nationalists could take. Portuguese East Timor was forgotten, largely, in the pre-World War II and postwar nationalist agitation. Virtually the only commonality among the various islands and regions was that they had all been part of the 350-years under Dutch rule [less so in the case of Aceh which had repeatedly resisted into the 20th century if finally defeated].

But the concern has been ø not only in Indonesia but just voiced by AustraliaÕs foreign minister as he completed a visit just as the offensive in Aceh began ø among Indonesians and foreigners that if Aceh won independence, it would be the beginning of the unraveling of the unitary state. [And Indonesian nationalists rejected federalism when it was foisted on them by the independence settlement in 1949.] For its Southeast Asian neighbors, who too, have their own ethnic and linguistic separatists, a victorious independent Acehnese state is seen as the beginning of chaos in the archipelago, and for the major powers, lying as it does across one of the most important transportation routes in the world.

The Indonesian military appear to believe that their own imitation of shock and awe will finally crack the insurgency. That optimism flies in the face of one of the messiest guerrilla campaigns in Asian history with probably as many as 10,000 casualties ø many if not most of them civilian ø over the past 25 years. Not only has there been the usual terror and counter-terror connected with such conflicts, but the opposition to Djakarta has splintered. Already in the first few days, the fighting has turned nasty. A campaign to destroy schools has developed. Djakarta has moved to squash all objective reporting, banning NGOs from the province. There are conflicting stories about cut off food shipments.

The danger for the international community is that not only may the Indonesian military not succeed in suppressing the insurgency in a bloody campaign, but that they will further radicalize the Achenese. They are considered among the most devout Moslems in Indonesia where Islam is generally heterodox. One of DjakartaÕs concessions in recent years was to endorse the implementation of sharia, traditional Islamic law, replacing the combination of Western law and adat [Malay customary law] which has been IndonesiaÕs code. The rebel leadership exiled in Europe has had close ties to LibyaÕs Qadaffi in the past, although it has been considerate moderate. But its riches [the rebels supported themselves with large scale smuggling operations for years] and its relative isolation could provide a haven for Islamicist radicals, some with ties to Al Qaeda, which have already surfaced in Indonesia, Singapore, the Philippines and southern Thailand. That would be a new and considerable headache for WashingtonÕs war on terrorism.

Sol W. Sanders, (solsanders@comcast.net), is an Asian specialist with more than 25 years in the region, and a former correspondent for Business Week, U.S. News & World Report and United Press International. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

May 29, 2003

Print this Article Print this Article Email this article Email this article Subscribe to this Feature Free Headline Alerts


See current edition of

Return to World Tribune.com Front Cover
Your window on the world

Contact World Tribune.com at world@worldtribune.com