INDONESIA: Dirty War in Aceh

December 2002 – 24’00”

Rebels clean weapons, JM walks past For 26 years the rebels of Aceh have preferred to die fighting than call themselves Indonesians.
WS JM to camera walking “They say Indonesia stole their land and their riches and they want it back – whatever the cost.”
Ambush archive This gun battle was filmed back in August.2,000 people were killed last year – mostly civilians. This week a peace deal was signed. But hatred runs deep.
TITLES:UNREPORTED WORLD INDONESIA’S DIRTY WAR
Flying to Aceh This is a vast and often violent land of 220,000,000 people.A country torn apart by conflict.
WS JM’s hand over mapCU JM’s finger on Aceh “Now that East Timor’s got independence, Indonesia faces separatist revolts in Papua, over in the far east of the archipelago, and in the far north-westernmost tip of Sumatra: Aceh. That’s where we’re heading.”
Coast in distance, JM looks out, POV jungle For years the government has tried to keep the rebellious province of Aceh unreported. Its forces stand accused of having waged a dirty war of rape, torture and execution.But after the Bali bomb, the Indonesian authorities gave me a journalist visa. I used it to go to Aceh.
Drive into town The provincial capital seemed peaceful enough. To begin with.
POV past demo Outside their local parliament of government appointees, people were demanding an end to the bloodshed.
UPSOT demo, demonstrators, JM watching Aceh is rich in natural gas and other resources, but little wealth has reached ordinary people. That’s one reason so many have wanted to turn their backs on Indonesia and go it alone.
CU JM to camera "The character of the demonstration has changed quite dramatically here, from a simple demand for a ceasefire to these people shouting for independence and freedom for Aceh."
A world away in Geneva the government was talking to the rebels. But independence wasn’t on the cards.
MS JM to camera walking "The police intelligence have just asked for our documents and they want to see our letters to show that we're legally here. But we're being kicked out."
Sunset pan across city In Aceh, poverty mingles with memories of past glories. For centuries Aceh was a rich, powerful and fiercely independent sultanate. A golden age, now written out of Indonesian schoolbooks.
Wheel on road Any perceived threat to the unity of the Indonesian nation has always been firmly dealt with.
Pan to 2 shot JM to camera "This is Juferi. He's a very brave but very worried man. Two years ago when he was helping re-settle Acehnese refugees, a soldier came up to him and smashed him in the face with a rifle butt, breaking his cheekbone and jawbone. They then stripped him naked and shoved him in a dark room for 48 hours.”
c/u Juferi Juferi said his experience was commonplace. That’s why he’d become a counsellor for victims of human rights abuse.
Travelling POVs, arrival at village He took me out of town into an area largely controlled by the rebels. Roadside sentries watched for Indonesian army and police patrols.
Village meeting ; pan to Juferi talking to locals, CU woman Juferi is not a member of the rebels. But his work highlighting abuses by the security forces was dangerous. He was receiving death threats almost daily. Three of his colleagues were murdered last year.
CU JM aside to camera "Juferi's explaining to all of these people that the outside world needs to know what's been going on in Aceh. But they're a bit scared to talk and he's trying to set them at their ease and saying don't be frightened, talk from your heart and tell us your stories."
Young man, 2 women talking to JM & Shadia And they did. Abdullah. Rice farmer. Shot in both legs by an army patrol without warning. Just feels anger, hatred, he says. Ralia. Bullet through the knee while harvesting in a paddy field. Already widowed. Now unable to work. Fatimah, her daughter. It’s hard for us now, she said.Syarifah. Village schoolteacher. And her 21-year-old best friend, Ekka. Both mothers of fatherless children. Sure, soldiers got jumpy patrolling in rebel territory, but terror like this was hard for these people to forgive. Shared pain had strengthened their feeling of being Acehnese, rather than Indonesian.
WS JM to camera seated "Well these two - two more incredibly sad stories. Syarifah here, her husband had gone to the coffee shop, and the mobile police came past and just shot him dead. At noon. Ekka here, she went to her mother’s house one night, and she came back in the morning – she was pregnant at the time - her husband had disappeared. That was 8 months ago and he’s never been seen since. The child’s since been born."
JM approaches and greets man “Salaam aleikom. Jonathan.”
CU leg with metal rod Some just go numb inside. Shut down completely. Like 27-year-old Dharmawadi.
2 shot JM to camera standing "OK, well that's a classic case of fire first, talk later, or in this case talk not even at all. This man was coming back from having collected firewood, was walking across a paddy field, when a mobile foot patrol of soldiers saw him, just shot him down. He was shot twice in one leg. And it won’t heal, he says.”
Last year the Indonesian President apologised for human rights abuse in Aceh. But it didn’t stop.
2 shot JM to camera standing “So they’re just bringing these people in from villages around and about to meet us because they just want to show us just how bad the problem really is. These are ordinary villagers, farmers just being mown down.”
WS group walk off We’d been there 2 hours.One man had warned me that if soldiers entered the village we should drop everything and “run like hell.” Thankfully it didn’t come to that.
JM and Shadia in car mirror I’d heard that in the countryside few families had been left untouched by violence.
Night shot But I couldn’t help feeling that even if peace were to break out tomorrow, these wounds might never heal.
POVs driving past demo Another day, another demonstration. This time, farmers were demanding the government do something about poverty. This place had the feel of a very unhappy colony.
Car stops and JM gets out We pulled up just short of Police Headquarters.
WS JM to camera from outside car "We think we may have been able to negotiate a way in to see the British academic Lesley McCulloch, who’s held in the police station just down here. She was arrested six weeks ago for violating her tourist visa. One of the things that she said which really riled the Indonesian authorities was that "in their own imaginations most Acehnese are unlikely ever to belong to Indonesia - in their minds they will always be elsewhere."
JM & Shadia walk away Dr McCulloch is a university lecturer. An expert on Asia and an authority on Aceh.
JM & Shadia enter building No journalist had talked to her since she was arrested at knifepoint by the army.
Police Commissioner gets up from desk Her jailer, the Commissioner of Police for Aceh Province, wanted to talk to us.
WS JM & Shadia with Commissioner He showed me prosecution documents, print-outs from Dr McCulloch’s laptop. She’d insisted these documents were for academic research. He disagreed.
CU JM listening to Commissioner If she’d really been a tourist, he told me, she’d have been lying on a beach.
Pan from Shadia to WS JM & Commissioner A photograph. It’s a stone bench, apparently splattered with blood. Dr McCulloch, he said, claimed the army used it for torture. I tell you the truth, he said: she’s lying.
JM picks up daysack (JM to camera) “Here we go. This could be interesting.”(Shadia to JM) “Stick to the questions. Please.”
WS JM and Shadia in corridor It seemed we had persuaded the Commissioner to let me in to see Dr McCulloch. He’d made much of the free press in Aceh. But there were certain questions he did not want me to ask.
Zoom in JM to camera "This is the office in which she's held. It’s not a prison cell. It's an old office without a window inside Police Headquarters."
JM meets Lesley McCulloch (LM) in corridor “Hi Jonathan. Nice to meet you.”“You too.”
Into police chief’s office Dr McCulloch and the American nurse she was arrested with could face 5 years in jail if convicted. Their trial resumes next week.
WS JM to LM "So look Lesley what's really important here is that we’ve been told to stick to a very very strict list of 7 questions which I've already given him. It does not leave room for manoeuvre, and I believe that some peoples' safety is at risk if we diverge from that. So the first question that I had on my list to ask you is - why were you arrested?"
CU LM to JM "We were stopped in a sweeping operation by the army. We were arrested because we tried to protect our bags, they tried to open them without our permission and we got into a fight with them basically. And they brought in some BRIMOB – some of the mobile police brigade - and things turned pretty ugly and we were taken away to a local police station."
c/a photo on wall The police chief constantly interrupted. Hurry up, he said. Get on with it.
CU JM to LM “Has your experience here changed your views?"
CU LM to JM "It's only confirmed my suspicions and what I already knew based on previous research and concrete evidence I've gathered over several years – and it's made me more angry on behalf of the Acehnese and what happens to them here in Aceh.”
JM to LM "If you had the opportunity to make a statement to the Indonesian government, what would you wish to say?"
LM to JM "They must listen to what the Acehnese want. And what they are doing is heightening - by pursuing a military or a security solution here - is heightening the sense of fear, the victim and revenge mentality that is perpetuating the problem here."
WS JM to camera "OK, so they took notes on what was said in that interview and they're just checking them past the commander here."
Tilt town at dusk Some say Dr McCulloch got too close to the rebels. Others suspect she got too close to the truth.
Driver, POV night driving Every human rights report I’d read about Aceh said the police and the army tortured those suspected of links to the rebel Free Aceh Movement – or GAM as it’s known.
WS JM to camera kneeling "Its quite late in the evening and we've just received a telephone tip-off that 6 young men suspected by the police of being members of GAM and accused of planting a bomb have been released from police custody after several days. Their lawyer has asked us to come in and see them."
Pan across bare backs – WS JM to camera kneeling (JM UPSOT) "Well as you can see the injuries suffered by these men are pretty severe. They're all terrified for their lives. We've had to conceal their identities because there were many cases in the past of people being picked up again by the police and beaten again."
CU bare back (JM UPSOT) "Could he tell us what actually happened?"(Shadia in Indonesian)(Victim in Indonesian) (JM UPSOT) "He was beaten."(Victim in Indonesian)(JM UPSOT) "And how long did this go on for?"(Shadia in Indonesian)(Victim in Indonesian)
WS JM to camera standingCU bare back "Ten days. OK, this guy was beaten for ten days with wooden blocks, rifle butts, and bits of – steel, metal yuh? – and burned by cigarettes and dripping plastic. And he was blindfolded throughout. This was in interrogation.”
WS JM to camera kneeling “They’d all been accused of being members of GAM, having been found sleeping in a mosque, in a town called Lhokseumawe."
JM walks towards headlights, gets in car, car past camera Indonesia has signed the United Nations Convention Against Torture. But a recent UN report was damning. In Aceh, it said, the police and the army not only tortured but did so with impunity.
Banda Aceh Mosque
Tracking WS coffee brought to JM WS JM to camera seated (JM in Indonesian) "OK, we're sitting here waiting for a meeting with Djali Yusuf, the commander of the army in Aceh. The interesting thing about him is that he's an Acehnese himself."
JM & Shadia led out, soldier mops floor He was appointed to win hearts and minds.
WS JM to camera standing "This is the General coming now."
Djali Yusuf (DY) steps out, guard barks order, DY up steps to building He’s in command of around 25,000 troops – maybe more – who are up against perhaps 5,000 GAM guerrillas.
JM to DY as shake hands "Selamat pagi. Good to meet you."
Officers at lunch, General singing I was invited for curry lunch in the officers’ mess. Karaoke was on the menu too. General Djali Yusuf liked to lead from the front.
WS JM to camera seated "He has such a lovely voice."
More lunch shots, ws general singing Syadiah, my Acehnese guide, was in full agreement.
Love Story sheet c/a; officers As the general crooned, the gossip was about war and peace. Word was the Americans were leaning on the government and the rebels to do a deal.
Chopper lands Outside the officers’ mess there was still a war going on.
WS JM to camera walking with DY "The General wants to take us down to the town of Lhokseumawe, which is where Exxon Mobil is based."
DY boards chopper, JM tooFirst interior shotThree-shot generals We were headed for the gas fields that make Aceh such a valuable prize. If I’d gone by road, I’d have hit dozens of checkpoints – which, even with my journalist visa, could have spelled trouble.But luckily for me the general wanted to visit his garrison, and I now had a high-level military escort.
Big panNo smokingAerial Lhokseumawe Below: just paddy fields and poverty. No hint of Aceh’s wealth down there. You wouldn’t have guessed that this place was actually rich. The General seemed relaxed enough. The rebels in Lhokseumawe had only managed to shoot down one army helicopter. The garrison town loomed out of the monsoon, Exxon Mobil facilities clearly visible.
Land Rover tourThis feels a bit wall to wall I set out in an armoured Land Rover for a tour of the gas pipeline. Last year GAM forced Exxon Mobil to shut down operations for four months. Now, more than 3,000 troops guard the complex. In America, a human rights group has filed a lawsuit accusing Exxon Mobil of doing nothing to halt troops killing, torturing and raping local villagers. The company denies this allegation. It says it strongly condemns human rights abuse.
Flag at half mast Back at the garrison, flags flew at half mast. A soldier had just been shot dead by the GAM.
Marching soldiers I’d heard whispers a new offensive was underway. Designed, I presumed, to concentrate minds at the peace talks in Geneva.
Helipad GVs General Djali Yusuf had finished meeting his commanders. It was my chance to question him.
CU DY on helipadCU JM to DY (JM UPSOT) "General, during your time commanding the troops here, very serious human right abuse was documented. There was documented torture, rape, disappearance, murder and some human rights groups say that continues today. What’s your response to those allegations?”
(DY in Indonesian)As an Acehnese, the General has to watch his back. He has many enemies – even in the army.
Zoom in JM walking “Well, very frank answer there. The General admitted to the fact that there have been human rights violations in the past and even that they continue today. But, he says, it’s just not like you hear on the news. There aren’t any disappearances. I don’t send my soldiers into the field in order for them to do that sort of thing. He says the human rights groups are using the Exxon Mobil thing to their advantage and they’ve got their own agenda. There’s an anti-army propaganda thing going on, he says. They’re accusing us of being in their pay. Frankly, he says, I can speak to you with a clean heart. I want to secure Aceh. And he says basically there will never be a separate Aceh.”
Army convoyJM in truckGoggle soldiers and gunEnd of pan from tracking to soldierWalk through village with soldiersAt gravesideGuards But if this is what life would be like in a “secure” Aceh, it’s a frightening vision. I was invited to join the General’s convoy as he made a personal detour deep into rebel-held territory. Unlike most of his troops, who come from all over the Indonesian archipelago, the General grew up in an Acehnese village. He’s a son of the soil, as they say here. Now he was on a private pilgrimage – to his father’s grave.There’d been no big welcome, but this unhappy homecoming was his way of asserting that he wouldn’t be intimidated by the rebels.Yet with the graveyard perimeter of his home village staked out by edgy soldiers, I reckoned the General knew in his heart that he was far from winning the hearts and minds of his people.
Banda Aceh dusk/dawn GV
JM in disguise in car Before I’d left the UK, I’d been in contact with the GAM rebels. Now I’d got the green light. Back in GAM territory I covered up – in case we ran into the army or police. I’d programmed in the General’s mobile number just in case.
WS JM to camera standing "OK, we’ve had a big change of plan. We were going to go down and meet some of the GAM leaders down in the Exxon Mobil area, but we had a message from them earlier to say that they've come under heavy and sustained attack from the Indonesian military and they can no longer accommodate.”
Boat arrives, loading up, setting off (Judging from the supplies loaded aboard, the GAM was an army that marched on Red Bull energy tonic and high tar cigarettes.) A small boat appeared out of the half light. We were to be taken somewhere else. I had no idea where we were going or who we’d meet when we got there. We were warned to be careful what we filmed. The plan was to keep us in the dark. Literally. Be safe, someone said. Insha’allah, I heard from behind me. God willing.
Boat deck - moving
CU JM to camera under poncho "We’re belting along in a speedboat here in dead of night and getting very wet in the process. I think it’s about a half hour ride to the GAM base to which we’re heading."
Boat deck – static In the event our trip took a lot longer.(UPSOT boatman on radio.)
CU JM to camera under poncho "OK, we’re floating around here, about a kilometre or so offshore and we’ve cut the engine and the boatman and the GAM guerrilla who’s with us has just been radio-ing into the village to see if it’s safe for us to go in now. And we’re waiting for the all- clear."
Guided by flashlights, our boat reversed over a reef through heavy surf. No moon, but from what I could make out, we were in a jungle camp, not a village.Men with guns ushered us into a clearing. I didn’t get too misty-eyed about these rebel fighters. I knew GAM’s own human rights record was open to question. Its guerillas have killed informants. They’ve run extortion rackets and have kidnapped for ransom.These young rebels had only ever known war. For all the talk of a possible deal in Geneva, hopes had been dashed so many times that the chances of peace seemed as remote as this jungle command post.
Inside hut The air was thick with the smell of clove cigarettes. On the boat I’d overheard talk on the radio that there’d been a delivery of weapons that night somewhere along this stretch of coast. I asked if they’d been the recipients. No no, they insisted. Not us. The source of their weapons was closer to home.
WS JM to camera seated “So what they’re saying is that one of the main sources of the weapons that they have here is actually from the army and some of them they capture but others they – they buy from them. And a lot of ammunition as well. This gun here they’ve just scrubbed the serial numbers off so that they can’t tell. In fact on the other side - on this side, they’ve got their ASNLF which is the Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front, which the full name for the GAM.”
WS JM to camera seated “These are M-16 bullets and they say these ones they can buy from the army for 3,000 Rupiah which is about 30p. And not only do they get their guns and ammunition from the army, but it’s quite a useful way for them to get military training as well. There are quite a number of Acehnese who join the army – and they then defect back to the GAM once they’ve got their military training.”
Rebel cooking We talked long into the night. It was Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month. At 4am they served up fish curry and rice. This would be their last meal until the following evening.
Daybreak… sentry on beach
Various, guerrillas During the night I’d expressed surprise at their willingness to be filmed. ‘No problem,’ they’d said. ‘We’re dead anyway.’But this week the talks in Geneva have in fact produced a deal: elections if the rebels hand in their guns. Self-rule, but not independence.But this week the talks in Geneva have in fact produced a deal: elections if the rebels hand in their guns. Self-rule. Not independence.
WS JM to JoJo on beach But noone’s jumping for joy just yet. Listen to this 21-year-old platoon commander and you understand why.
MS JM to camera seated "He says we want to be free, we want to be independent and we do not want to be occupied by Indonesia. He says that in matters of injustice, human rights, economy, all these things, we just do not want to be part of them, we do not feel part of them. And we are prepared to take any risk, even if we have to die for our dignity and for the people of Aceh."
Rebels clean weapons, parade The Acehnese rebels have done what countless others are doing across the globe: they’ve carved out an identity they believe offers a sense of belonging in a hostile world.It’s why, as the 21st century begins, there are so many civil wars.
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