ACEH MILITARY GOES AFTER ACTIVISTS
By Nani Farida

February 26, 2004 – (The Jakarta Post) The Aceh martial law administrator has vowed to go after non-governmental organization (NGO) activists in the province, saying many of them were accomplices of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"What is certain is that the activists arrested (by security officers) are involved in the separatist movement," martial law administration spokesman Col. Ditya Sudarsono said on Wednesday.

Ditya was asked to confirm the rampant arrests of activists in troubled province Aceh.

At least three activists are now being detained by security officers in Aceh and many more have been placed on the wanted list.

"We don't consider them activists, but people who either sympathize with GAM or openly help the rebels," Ditya told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He also admitted that many activists in Aceh had fled to Jakarta and other provinces outside Aceh.
"Outside Aceh they are shouting that the military has committed abuses in Aceh. They (activists) do not change the situation for the better," Ditya said.

The Aceh martial law administration, according to Ditya, is determined to pursue those activists wherever they go.
"Clearly their actions hurt national interests. They have to be arrested and questioned," he stressed.

He declined to reveal the number of activists the martial law authority was targeting.

National and international NGOs have slammed the abduction of six students activist in Aceh recently by the police and demanded their immediate release.

The six detainees were identified as Harlina (22), Nova Rahayu (23), Nursida (22) from the Acehnese Democratic Women's Organization (ORPAD), Iwan Irama Putra from the Linge Students Network (IMPEL), and Syafruddin from the Students' Solidarity with the People (SMUR).

The last was Masrizal, who is reportedly a member of GAM's military wing. The six were students of Syahkuala University and Ar-Rainiry Islamic Teaching Institute (IAIN) in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh.

NGOs have said the students are human rights activists and were arrested as they had uncovered grave human rights violations since the imposition of martial law on May 19 last year.

The government declared war against the Acehnese rebels in May last year to crack on the separatist movement which has been fighting for independence for the resource-rich province since 1976.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that the police are denying access to a detained activist who has reportedly been beaten up. A lawyer and his wifehave since last week been barred from visiting Muhammad Nazar, the head of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre.

The centre campaigns for an independence referendum in the province in Sumatra island, where police and troops are battling separatist guerrillas.

From The Jakarta Post