DATE=11/17/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=ACEH SEPARATISM
NUMBER=5-44777
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=BANDA ACEH
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: In Indonesia's northern Aceh province, pressure
is mounting for a vote on independence, similar to the
referendum last August that led to self-rule for East
Timor. Patricia Nunan visited the provincial capital,
Banda Aceh and reports independence sentiment is deep
and widespread.
TEXT:
///ACT -- BACKGROUND TALKING/ NOISE.IN FULL FADE UNDER
AND OUT ///
The office of the student wing of the Aceh Referendum
Information Center is an unfurnished room in a house
in the suburban neighborhood of Banda Aceh. A dozen
or so supporters sit cross-legged on the linoleum
floor, beneath two portraits of an Acehnese separatist
leaders from the 1800's. They chat and wait for their
leader to arrive.
Mohammed Nazar is the chairman of the Aceh Referendum
Information Center -- or SIRA as it is known. SIRA was
formed last February in response to what Mr. Nazar
says are growing demands in Aceh for the right to
self-determination. He says the issue deserves more
international attention.
/// NAZAR ACT ///
The Aceh case is not only a local and national
problem, but an international or global case
that must be paid attention to by any
international parties and communities.
///END ACT ///
The moment Mr. Nazar has been waiting for may now have
arrived. "Referendum fever" has swept Aceh in the
month since the Indonesian government granted
independence to East Timor, after a ballot supervised
by the United Nations. Even the word "referendum" is
everywhere: banners stretch across the front of
marketplaces and bus-stops, the world is painted in
two-meter tall block letters on the roads. What were
once blank walls on the sides of buildings now serve
as canvases for pro-referendum murals.
The reasons behind the push for independence are both
economic and political. The Acehnese want a greater
share of the profit derived from the province's
natural gas and oil deposits. They also want an end to
the terror they say has been inflicted on them by the
Indonesian military, which has occupied the province
for the past 10 years.
/// ACT CALL TO PRAYER - IN FULL, FADE DOWN ///
Community leaders say about seven thousand refugees
live in shacks built on the grounds of the Abu Daud
Brue-eh mosque in the town of Sigli, 90 kilometers
east of the provincial capital.
/// ACT VOX-POP - SPEAKING INDONESIAN, IN FULL, THEN
UNDER ///
One refugee says they have been here for two months
because they do not like what the army is doing. He
says they want the army to withdraw to Java, the
province where the capital Jakarta is located. They
have no right, he adds, to act like this in "our
country."
/// ACT VOX-POP - SPEAKING INDONESIAN, IN FULL, THEN
UNDER ///
This woman refugee says she and others are here
because they were afraid some soldiers would rape or
torture them. The 'Free Aceh Movement', she says,
asked them to come here to be safe.
The guerilla "Free Aceh Movement" declared an
independent Islamic state in 1976 -- which was never
recognized by the Indonesian government or the
international community. But the group has gained
greater support across Aceh, since the Indonesian
military crackdown. Human rights groups say at least
two thousand people have died or disappeared at the
hands of the Indonesian military. Some local non-
government organizations put the number in the tens of
thousands.
Rebel commander Teungku Abdullah Syafei has recently
begun an apparent public relations drive, meeting with
dozens of journalists in the past several weeks.
/// ACT SYAFEI SPEAKING INDONESIAN ///
Mr. Syafei says the future for Indonesia is
disintegration, because those who call themselves
Indonesian will want to free themselves from what he
calls "the shackles of Javanese repression."
The tide may be changing in Aceh sooner than expected,
with the announcement by Indonesian President
Abdurrahman Wahid that a referendum can be held in
about seven months. That plan is sure to cost the
president some popularity with several officials in
the Indonesian government, who believe that keeping
Aceh a part of Indonesia is crucial to preventing the
break-up of the nation. But that is of little concern
to the Acehnese -- who say they are willing to stake
their future on an independent homeland.
NEB/PN/FC/JO
17-Nov-1999 01:25 AM EDT (17-Nov-1999 0625 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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