Transitional justice delayed in Aceh, Indonesia

Edward Aspinall*, Fajran Zain

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

    2 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    For almost thirty years, between 1976 and 2005, an intermittent but often bitter civil war was waged in the province of Aceh, on Indonesia's northwestern periphery. The Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) strove to win Aceh's independence, but the Indonesian military (Tentara Nasional Indonesia, TNI) fought to prevent this outcome at all costs. In the process, violent abuses were committed on both sides, with GAM fighters trying to purge the province of Javanese and retaliating against ‘traitors’ who betrayed the cause, and the TNI engaging in a protracted dirty war in which many thousands of civilians fell victim to arbitrary detention, torture, extrajudicial killing and other forms of abuse. As time passed, more and more actors began to define the conflict in human rights terms. This began in the early 1990s, when international human rights organisations first began to document reports of large-scale abuses being conducted as part of the military's so-called Military Operations Zone (Daerah Operasi Militer, DOM) actions. After the collapse of the Suharto regime in 1998, there was a brief period of political opening in Aceh, and an array of new local activist human rights organisations sprang into being. Collaborating with Jakarta-based and international groups, they campaigned to expose military abuses in the province and to have the perpetrators punished. In the first years of Indonesia's Reformasi period, there were also some official investigations of past abuses, and even the first halting steps toward prosecution of military perpetrators. At the same time, a new generation of Acehnese nationalists began to define Aceh's struggle for self-determination in human rights terms, arguing that Indonesian repression justified independence, an argument that was also taken up by GAM. Soon, however, such arguments were again overshadowed by a return to full-scale conflict which greatly narrowed the space for humanitarian and civil society activity and led to the return of many of the worst features of the dirty war. In 2003 the Indonesian government declared a state of ‘military emergency’ in Aceh, announcing that it wished to destroy GAM once and for all. This declaration became the cover for forced evacuations of villages and other harsh actions, many of which were associated with high levels of abuse against civilians.

    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationTransitional Justice in the Asia-Pacific
    PublisherCambridge University Press
    Pages87-124
    Number of pages38
    ISBN (Electronic)9781139628914
    ISBN (Print)9781107040373
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2011

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