Extract From Z NET --See full
article below
ACEH GOES TO HEAVEN!
By Andre Vltchek
Whole villages and entire
towns disappeared from the
map.
The Army - a tremendous contingent of it
based in the province in order
to suppress insurgency - did close to nothing.
The government did close to
nothing.
Huge transport planes
were sitting on runways all over Java, waiting for
the order to take off - an
order which never arrived\\\
Indonesia has, per capita,
one of the highest
numbers of orphans anywhere in the world and one of the
worst records of
child prostitution in the region. The poor have no safety
net and
justice is for sale. Indonesia, according to
"Transparency
International", is one of the most corrupt nations on
earth.
The Indonesian military
had been involved in a massacre of Sukarno's
supporters after the coup in
1965 (up to 3 million people were butchered
in a matter of months), it led
genocidal war in East Timor (one of the
most horrific barbarities of the 20th
Century, happily applauded by the
West), and caused gross human rights
violations in Papua, Ambon, Aceh
and elsewhere. It was and still is much
better trained in raping and
torturing civilians than in any sort of
humanitarian assistance.
As foreign governments were
trying to outdo each other in pledging
hundreds of millions of dollars for
reconstruction of disaster stricken
areas, Indonesian officials and military
on the ground in Aceh were
openly sabotaging relief
efforts.
One of the consequences of
the lack of distribution of aid and medical
assistance to several refugee
camps has been the death of many refugees,
especially women and children",
says Yulia Evina Bhara from SEGERA
(Alliance-Solidarity Movement For the
People of Aceh). "This has
occurred in Mata Le, Ulee Kareng, and large part
of Pidie and Aceh
Jeumpa... It is evident that the government has not taken
any
cooperative steps in terms of allowing easy access to areas in which
aid
needs to be distributed. If this continues to be the case, it means
that
the government is effectively disregarding the much needed
humanitarian
solidarity..."
A crackdown on independent
sources of information by the Indonesian
state is becoming inevitable. As in
East Timor, Papua, and Aceh (before
the disaster) it will be done under the
cover of "protecting" the lives
of the foreigners. The question is what will
happen to Acehnese people
afterwards. Even now, several members of Indonesian
NGOs claim that the
government actions (or more precisely - inaction) are
responsible for at
least 50 thousand out of 100 thousand known victims of
disaster.
Is Aceh going to become another East Timor? Is the present
situation
a revenge and an extermination campaign design to break and secure
this economically
vital province?
Acehnese are proud and tough people.
When Javanese elites were selling
their country to foreigners, when most of
the islands of today's
Indonesia were accepting the presence of Dutch
colonizers; Aceh fought
bitterly for independence. "Under the Dutch, Java
used to send assassins
to break Aceh", said Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the
greatest Indonesian
writer and intellectual father of Indonesian state. "We
have so much to
learn from them!"
ANDRE VLTCHEK, writer,
political analyst and filmmaker lives and works
in Southeast Asia and South
Pacific and can be reached at:
andre-wcn@usa.net
ACEH GOES TO HEAVEN!
By Andre
Vltchek
Resting in a comfortable seat of super-express speeding towards
northern
Japan, I was admiring the snow-covered beauty of the rural
countryside.
It was getting dark and the wheels of the train were gently
drumming
against the rails in a monotonous and reassuring rhythm. The
world
seemed harmonious and safe.
Then suddenly my eyes caught sight
of the letters of a news bulletin
passing through the digital display above
the door. Strong earthquake
shook northern Sumatra. There were dozens of
casualties. Just that - no
further information was provided. I checked the
news, one hour later, on
the internet in my hotel in Sendai. It seemed that
hundreds of people
lost their lives in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and
Thailand. An
earthquake off the coast of Aceh, reaching magnitude of 9 on the
Richter
scale, was followed by a tsunami - a monstrous 10 meters high tidal
wave
- which crashed mercilessly and with unimaginable force against
the
shores of several unfortunate countries.
In the next few days the
number of victims grew to thousands, then to
tens of thousands. Whole
villages and entire towns disappeared from the
map. Hundreds of thousands of
refugees hit what was left of the roads,
but the roads were leading nowhere;
as bridges were washed away/ Floods
were fragmenting the entire North of
Sumatra Island. Electricity and
water supply collapsed (limited and
unreliable everywhere in Indonesia
even before the disaster); there was no
food, no blood for the injured
and no medicine. There was no reliable
information either, since the
foreign press was banned from traveling to the
province, "for its own
safety".
The Army - a tremendous contingent of
it based in the province in order
to suppress insurgency - did close to
nothing. It was ordered to clean
corpses and it cleaned some, but it
otherwise showed no initiative,
leaving a desperate population with almost no
help.
The government did close to nothing. Instead of ordering
special
military units to travel immediately to the province, instead of
using
hundreds of military helicopters and aircraft to supply food
and
medicine, instead of ordering all seaworthy vessels to the area
of
disaster, the President of Indonesia urged the citizens to "scale
down
New Year's celebrations and pray instead."
Huge transport planes
were sitting on runways all over Java, waiting for
the order to take off - an
order which never arrived.
Instead of employing professionals trained to
cope with emergency
situations, vice president Jusuf Kalla used military
planes and
commercial aircraft to shuttle Muslim militants (they called
themselves
"volunteers") from Majelis Mujahedeen Indonesia and Islamic
Defenders
Front (Front Pembela Muslim - better known as its acronym FPI -
militant
Muslim group from Jakarta devoted to enforcing Islamic law
against
drinking, gambling, and prostitution), a fact later reported by The
New
York Times. Then Laskar Jihad, one of the most militant Muslim groups
in
Southeast Asia made inroads into the province. Hundreds of
Christians,
mainly of Chinese origin, were forced to flee Aceh.
The
presence of "volunteers" - directly sponsored by the government -
had one
main purpose: to secure Indonesian and religious order (already
the strictest
in entire Indonesia) in the province which was fighting
for independence for
almost thirty years, at enormous cost. Practically
speaking, these untrained
urbanites were only taking precious space in
scarce flights to the province,
although the propaganda machine fired
the stories how some of them single-
handedly managed to restore
electric supplies and telecommunications in Banda
Aceh.
And the dead kept mounting, diseases were spreading, hunger began
to
kill those who miraculously survived the brutality of the
nature.
At one point the refusal to help Aceh began to look like a
vengeance
killing by the government and the military. Then Aceh suddenly
appeared
in the spotlight of interest of the international community and
after
some hesitation, the government "benevolently" allowed foreign aid
and
some international press agencies to enter the province.
The
results were almost immediate. International organizations and
foreign
military flew in and began building infrastructure from scratch.
Not to
rebuild it - there was not much social infrastructure even before
the tsunami
- but to construct provisory hospitals, food supply centers,
shelters for the
homeless. It was not enough, but it was at least
something; definitely more
than the state did in the last three decades
when it came to investment in
social infrastructure.
While this was happening, the Indonesian
government was bragging that
the disaster would not jeopardize predicted
economic growth for the year
2005 (the lowest in the region even before the
tsunami).
The Finance Minister openly declared that it expects foreigners
to
rebuild the area, while not diverting any substantial funds from
state
coffers. He was also quick to point out that vital oil production
(the
main reason for the occupation and the main income of the province
-
basically controlled by foreign multi-nationals after corrupt
deals
signed by Suharto's government few decades ago) suffered only a
minor
setback, although some inside reports suggest the contrary.
The
government also suggested that Aceh is an outskirt of Indonesia;
therefore
its plight will have no major impact on the economy. In fact,
it argued with
no scruples, Indonesia could benefit, because it may
attract thousands of
tourists who will be avoiding damaged holiday
resorts in Thailand.
To
put the situation into perspective, the social system in Indonesia
collapsed
during the years when Suharto, supported by the West, fully
controlled the
political and economic life of Indonesia. This was also a
period when
Indonesians went through rigorous religious indoctrination
which was supposed
to reinforce the culture of obedience, which in turn
served the
regime.
Almost all public services were privatized, the quality of
education
nose-dived and life expectancy stagnated at around 64 years (one of
the
lowest in the region). Indonesia has, per capita, one of the
highest
numbers of orphans anywhere in the world and one of the worst records
of
child prostitution in the region. The poor have no safety net
and
justice is for sale. Indonesia, according to
"Transparency
International", is one of the most corrupt nations on
earth.
The Indonesian military had been involved in a massacre of
Sukarno's
supporters after the coup in 1965 (up to 3 million people were
butchered
in a matter of months), it led genocidal war in East Timor (one of
the
most horrific barbarities of the 20th Century, happily applauded by
the
West), and caused gross human rights violations in Papua, Ambon,
Aceh
and elsewhere. It was and still is much better trained in raping
and
torturing civilians than in any sort of humanitarian assistance.
This compassionless, paralyzed and morally corrupt society was
now
facing one of the most terrible natural disasters in human
history.
Government officials and their business associates smelled a
tremendous
influx of foreign aid, which could, if unchecked, easily meet the
same
fate as the money from former foreign loans originally intended
for
development, infrastructure, and social programs but which
disappeared
in the deep pockets of elites, never reaching the impoverished
majority
of Indonesians.
As foreign governments were trying to outdo
each other in pledging
hundreds of millions of dollars for reconstruction of
disaster stricken
areas, Indonesian officials and military on the ground in
Aceh were
openly sabotaging relief efforts.
Food and medicine were
piling in Medan and Banda Aceh, while almost no
help was reaching desperate
communities. A chartered Boeing 737 hit a
buffalo after landing, shutting
down for hours the only runway in the
then only functioning airport in all of
Aceh. Apparently it was not
worth it to assign the military to guard this
vital lifeline. But was it
really an accident?
"One of the
consequences of the lack of distribution of aid and medical
assistance to
several refugee camps has been the death of many refugees,
especially women
and children", says Yulia Evina Bhara from SEGERA
(Alliance-Solidarity
Movement For the People of Aceh). "This has
occurred in Mata Le, Ulee Kareng,
and large part of Pidie and Aceh
Jeumpa... It is evident that the government
has not taken any
cooperative steps in terms of allowing easy access to areas
in which aid
needs to be distributed. If this continues to be the case, it
means that
the government is effectively disregarding the much needed
humanitarian
solidarity..."
Shortly after the tsunami hit the coast,
GAM (Free Aceh Movement)
declared a ceasefire. Few days later there were
reports that Indonesian
military continued with its operations. Sporadic
exchanges of fire
erupted in several places of Aceh. With no shame and no
hesitation, the
President of Indonesia began accusing GAM of breaking the
ceasefire.
Foreign mainstream press (traditionally friendly to the
post-1965
Indonesian regime), which initially concentrated its coverage
strictly
on disaster itself and later on the foreign relief operations,
began
asking some uncomfortable questions. Although still omitting
information
concerning the horrific human rights record of the Indonesian
state, it
couldn't fully ignore voices of Acehnese people who were accusing
the
government of sabotaging relief operations.
Sharp criticism of
Indonesian government and military also came from
foreign aid
workers.
That seemed to be unacceptable for the establishment. On January
9th,
the government began tightening restrictions on the movement
of
foreigners in the province. Reuters reported that on the 11th of
January
all good will vanished. Indonesia restricted foreign aid workers to
two
large cities because of "militant threats".
Indonesian army chief
- General Endriartono Sutarto - declared that GAM
might soon attack foreign
aid workers or troops in Aceh. All aid
agencies and NGOs operating in the
province were urged to provide a full
list of their staff.
GAM
responded by denying all accusations made by the government,
claiming that it
never intended to cause harm to those who came to help,
be it foreigners or
locals. Foreigners operating in Aceh confirmed that
they felt no threat from
the independence movement.
A crackdown on independent sources of
information by the Indonesian
state is becoming inevitable. As in East Timor,
Papua, and Aceh (before
the disaster) it will be done under the cover of
"protecting" the lives
of the foreigners. The question is what will happen to
Acehnese people
afterwards. Even now, several members of Indonesian NGOs
claim that the
government actions (or more precisely - inaction) are
responsible for at
least 50 thousand out of 100 thousand known victims of
disaster.
Is Aceh going to become another East Timor? Is the present
situation
just a result of impotence and incapability of the government,
military,
and the whole system, or of something much more sinister? Is it
revenge;
an extermination campaign design to break and secure this
economically
vital province?
Acehnese are proud and tough people. When
Javanese elites were selling
their country to foreigners, when most of the
islands of today's
Indonesia were accepting the presence of Dutch colonizers;
Aceh fought
bitterly for independence. "Under the Dutch, Java used to send
assassins
to break Aceh", said Pramoedya Ananta Toer, the greatest
Indonesian
writer and intellectual father of Indonesian state. "We have so
much to
learn from them!"
Recently, exploited by foreign multinational
companies and by new
Javanese elites, the people of Aceh began to fight
again, against all
odds. This time they fought against the Indonesian state -
against one
of the largest military forces on earth. 10 thousand men, women
and
children died in almost three decades of the conflict; maybe many
more.
One of "profound" religious interpretations of this disaster
in
Indonesia was that God punished the people of Aceh for fighting
for
their independence. Official media even managed to find some
Acehnese
who declared it on the record. "If we don't stop fighting, we'll all
go
to hell."
Those who always suspected that there are no eternal
flames, those who
respect human life above anything else always knew that
Aceh was already
going through hell for many years. But "hell is the others"
- those who
fight innocent civilians, those who torture, those who are
blocking help
from the suffering people in their moment of tremendous need
and
catastrophe.
If those who are using disaster and human suffering
for their own
political, economic and military goals are not stopped soon,
the entire
country of Indonesia may soon go to hell. Not to some hell
depicted by
religious books - but to a real hell which is life in a society
which
has lost all basic moral human values; which allows small minority
of
people vulgarly lavish lifestyles at the expense of tens of millions
who
are starving and desperate.
Aceh is bleeding and the worst may
still be ahead. Those who are
arriving in Aceh should know that they are not
only entering a land
devastated by horrific natural disaster; they are
entering a territory
which was brutalized and exploited for decades and which
still is. It
doesn't only need aid - it needs solidarity, protection, and
determined
long-term help; and it needs it now! It needs a referendum and if
it
decides to vote for it - freedom. Anything will be better than
the
present situation - from here Aceh can only go to heaven!
ANDRE
VLTCHEK, writer, political analyst and filmmaker lives and works
in Southeast
Asia and South Pacific and can be reached at:
andre-wcn@usa.net Hauston