DATE=11/16/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA/SEPARATISM
NUMBER=5-44768
BYLINE=GARY THOMAS
DATELINE=BANGKOK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Indonesia's new president says a referendum in the
restive province of Aceh could be held within seven months.
The president's backing for a referendum on Aceh's future
places him at odds with the country's military, which fears
such a vote will lead to the breakup of Indonesia. As V-O-
A Southeast Asia correspondent Gary Thomas reports, demands
from Aceh and other provinces on the central government may
force substantial changes in Indonesia's political
structure.
TEXT: Despite strong opposition, President Abdurrahman
Wahid continues to voice support for a referendum in Aceh.
The issue is a hot one. Prominent politicians, such as
parliamentary speaker Amien Rais, think it is a bad idea.
So does the powerful Indonesian military.
So why is Mr. Wahid doing it?
Harold Crouch, a prominent scholar of Indonesian Affairs at
the Australian National University, says Mr. Wahid is
playing a waiting game, hoping to reach a deal with Aceh
that falls short of independence.
/// CROUCH ACT ///
What he's been doing lately is to offer a referendum,
but to give various options to the people of Aceh,
but not including independence. So it's really
various degrees of autonomy, rather than full
independence. But, of course, that won't be very
well received by many people in Aceh.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Wahid said in Tokyo Tuesday he believes the true
separatists are only a small minority among the Acehnese.
Mr. Crouch says Mr. Wahid is pursuing a risky strategy --
but that he really has no choice.
/// CROUCH ACT ///
It's certainly risky. But it's risky if he does
nothing also. Because in a way, unless some sort of
concessions are made in Aceh, he's going to have to
send the military in, well, to just do what they were
doing before. And I think that goes very much
against his spirit, I would say. He's been a critic
of the military in the past.
/// END ACT ///
Aceh activists accuse the Indonesian military of widespread
human rights abuses in the bid to crush the separatist
movement there. Hundreds of thousands of Achenese recently
rallied in the provincial capital to demand a referendum.
The calls for a referendum in Aceh have risen dramatically
with the election of a new democratic government in Jakarta
and the August referendum for independence in East Timor.
The demand, in turn, has raised fears among some
politicians and the military that if Aceh secedes,
Indonesia will splinter apart. More than one analyst has
called Indonesia the "Yugoslavia of Southeast Asia."
But Mr. Crouch says some form of federalism for Indonesia
may be inevitable, if it is to stay intact - even though
such an idea is bitterly opposed by the military
establishment.
/// CROUCH ACT ///
I think for a long time people used to say, oh a
federation is a step towards the breakup of
Indonesia. Now, people are saying, federation is a
way to stop Indonesia breaking up. And certainly
President Abdurrahman Wahid, I heard him myself say
that he wouldn't use the word federalism, but he is
using the term total autonomy. In other words, a
system the various provinces feel they have
constitutional guarantees of very wide autonomy.
/// END ACT ///
Hoping to placate some separatist sentiment, parliament
Monday approved the release of nearly 100 political
prisoners, many of them jailed for separatist activities in
Aceh, East Timor, and Irian Jaya. (SIGNED)
NEB/GPT/FC
16-Nov-1999 06:40 AM EDT (16-Nov-1999 1140 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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