The New York Times, January 17, 2005
Rebels Express Thanks for Aid to Acehnese
By IAN FISHER
ANDA ACEH, Aceh, Sumatra, Jan. 16 - The rebel, dressed in military fatigues and
carrying a cellphone and an old Kalashnikov, had a message for the scores of
foreigners who have come here to help after the tsunami: You are welcome, and we
will not hurt you.
"What GAM wants is for the international community to stay and help and see for
themselves what is happening," the rebel, Mucksalmina, told a reporter on Sunday,
using the common acronym for the Free Aceh Movement, the separatist army that
has been fighting the Indonesian government for most of the past 30 years.
It is rare for foreigners to speak with the rebels - Aceh Province has been closed to
outsiders for almost two years - but the political aftermath of the tsunami in Indonesia
has given them something to say. In doing so, it has also shifted the political dynamic
in this war zone, leading secretive rebels under siege by the Indonesian military to
welcome the security that foreign scrutiny can provide, while the government in
Jakarta remains wary about any prolonged foreign presence.
Agreeing to meet at a secluded clearing, just outside this city and near the jungle
where the group hides, Mucksalmina, a rebel spokesman, wanted to counter what he
suggested was fear-mongering by the Indonesian government: that foreign aid workers
could be killed or kidnapped by the rebels.
The group has been accused of kidnapping civilians in the past, and the safety of aid
workers has hung as one question mark over the huge relief operation here, along with
the worry that fighting between the rebels and the government could hamper the
delivery of aid supplies, especially to remote areas of Aceh. Last week, the
government cited the possibility of rebel attacks as a reason for new travel restrictions
for foreigners outside the two main cities, Banda Aceh and Meulaboh to the south.
"If someone is shot from a United Nations agency, the whole United Nations agency
will withdraw," Alwi Shihab, Indonesia's chief welfare minister, told reporters here last
week, according to Reuters. "Who will be responsible if a foreigner is kidnapped? The
responsible party is us."
But Mucksalmina said that foreigners had nothing to fear from them and that the
group's top leadership had issued orders not to harm any aid workers. He said the
group was thankful for the help to Aceh from foreigners, including Americans, whose
military helicopters full of aid supplies buzz nonstop to the areas most affected.
"I am very grateful and thank the Americans and the rest of the world that when they
saw this disaster they worked directly to help," he said, guarded by more than a
dozen other armed men, some with grenades pinned to their shirts, on a small
clearing that separated a grove of woods and acres of rice paddies.
The real threat, he said, was the announced intention of the Indonesian government to
scale back on foreign help in the coming months.
"The Indonesian government just wants people out of Aceh as soon as possible so
they can reassert control," he said. Aceh is rich in minerals and natural gas, and one
of the grievances at the root of the separatist struggle has been that the province does
not receive a fair share of revenues from the central government. Adding to that
complaint in recent years has been the treatment meted out to the rebels by the
Indonesian Army.
Human rights groups and foreign officials have accused the government of human
rights abuses since the war reignited in May 2003, and of carrying out such violations
behind a curtain of secrecy thrown up by the barring of foreigners from Aceh. When
martial law was imposed, also in May 2003, some 40,000 Indonesian soldiers and
police officers were sent to fight about 5,000 rebels, according to a report by Human
Rights Watch, and since then the army has badly weakened the rebels.
The rebels, too, have been accused of abuses, particularly of kidnapping civilians and
holding them hostage. In May 2004, according to Human Rights Watch, some 150
civilians were released in a deal brokered by the International Committee for the Red
Cross and the Indonesian Red Cross. Human Rights Watch said it was unclear
whether the rebels were holding any other civilians.
The presence of an active armed conflict in the area most affected by the tsunami has
proved to be a complication as aid groups and the government here plan the huge
task of providing relief and rebuilding the devastated coast of Aceh.
Another major concern is the construction of camps for some of the nearly 400,000
people left homeless by the tsunami - whether the government here will use the
camps as a way to control people in areas with rebel activity and whether the rebels
will use the camps as a place to organize and supply themselves.
Aid officials say privately it is too early to tell whether either worry is true, but there
does seem some evidence that rebels are, at least, visiting some camps.
At one camp to the southwest of this city, a local leader - too afraid of both the rebels
and the army to give his name - said rebels had come into the camp on several
nights. The man said that the visits seemed to take place largely to see relatives and
to chat with sympathizers, rather than to organize or take aid supplies, but that the
visits could open the camps to reprisals by the army.
"We told them please to stay away from here because they might hurt their families
and endanger everyone around here," he said.
He said a local military commander found out about the visits and threatened to
reduce aid supplies if they continued.
Mucksalmina, the rebel spokesman, said his group was avoiding the camps and said
they would not use food aid meant for refugees to feed themselves. He also said the
rebels were giving their own stores of supplies to victims.
He denied reports that large numbers of rebels had died in the tsunami. He said the
rebels had lost about 70 male fighters and 48 women active in the group.
He also seemed skeptical that the tsunami might deliver the blessing of peace, that
all the suffering and destruction might make the government and rebels sit down and
reach a peace agreement. On Friday, the Indonesian vice president, Jusuf Kalla, said
that the government had contacted the rebels and that he wanted to "solve this
problem thoroughly." An exiled rebel leader also expressed a willingness to talk.
But Mucksalmina said that on the ground it was "the same as always."
"Right now, what we want to do is help people," he said. "But the Indonesian Army is
trying to do their operations, very tightly, so it has been almost impossible for us to
help our people."
He said that the rebels were observing their own cease-fire as long as the relief effort
was operating and added that they would not attack government troops. "We won't
use guns to take advantage of the situation," he said. But he added, "If the army fires
on us, we will fire back."
Copyright © 2005 The New York Times Company.
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