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Malaysia, Indonesia massacre Aceh refugees
Green Left Weekly - April 22, 1998
Norm Dixon – At least 51 Acehnese refugees have been murdered by Malaysian and Indonesian forces since March 25. News of the terrible atrocities, which have been ignored by the Australian mass media, was revealed by representatives of the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) rebel movement attending the Asia Pacific Solidarity Conference in Sydney on April 13.
Aceh, Indonesia's northernmost province, is located at the northern tip of Sumatra. It has a population of almost 3 million. After having occupied Java for 300 years and accepted Aceh's independence throughout that time, the Netherlands declared war on Aceh in 1873. The Dutch never succeeded in conquering Aceh, withdrawing in 1942.
In 1949, the Netherlands illegally ceded Aceh to the newly independent Indonesia. Aceh won special provincial status in 1959 after a six-year uprising against central government control.
Resistance to Indonesian control surged in 1977, after rebel leader Hasan di Tiro again declared Aceh's independence and formed the Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front, also known as Aceh Merdeka. Hundreds were arrested by the military throughout Aceh and Sumatra between 1977 and 1979. Di Tiro escaped to exile in Sweden.
The movement revived in 1989 in response to the Suharto dictatorship's policy of settling thousands of transmigrants in Aceh. Indonesia retaliated by sending more than 6000 troops into the province. Aceh Merdeka estimates that 50,000 Acehnese were killed by the Indonesian military between 1989 and 1995. Thousands have been arbitrarily imprisoned.
Thousands of Acehnese fled to neighbouring Malaysia where many have languished in appalling conditions in detention camps for years.
Under pressure from Jakarta, Malaysia reclassified the Acehnese as "economic" refugees. On March 26, Malaysian authorities suddenly moved to forcibly repatriate hundreds of Acehnese refugees housed in several camps.
The Aceh Merdeka representatives say that the Malaysian police, who control the detention camps, drugged the refugees' food the night before. Elite police units in full riot gear and attack dogs then surrounded the camps at dawn.
The refugees, fearing for their lives if returned to Indonesia, fought back with their bare hands. At the Semenyih centre, police fired on the refugees with automatic rifles, killing at least 24, according to refugee sources. Many others were severely wounded.
Deadly incidents also occurred at other detention centres, bringing the death toll to at least 30 before all the refugees were concentrated at the Lumut Naval Base in Perak state.
The Malaysian government claims that only eight refugees and one police officer were killed in the "riots" at the detention centres.
Some 545 refugees were put aboard Indonesian navy ships on March 29. At least eight refugees died en route to Lhokseumawe in Aceh. The Malaysian authorities refused to give the wounded medical attention or even wash the blood from them before they were put aboard.
After their arrival at the Rancong concentration camp - operated by Kopassus, the Indonesian army's notorious special force - rebel sources say another 12 refugees died from their injuries or were murdered by Indonesian troops. Aceh Merdeka fears that the number of deaths will increase at the hands of the brutal Kopassus.
Meanwhile in Malaysia, authorities are hunting some 3000 Acehnese who remain at large. The leaders of the Acehnese Refugee Committee of Malaysia (ARCM) have gone underground, and their homes have been raided.
On March 30, 12 Acehnese refugees succeeded in forcing their way into the United Nations High Commission for Refugees in Kuala Lumpur to demand protection, where they remain.