The Political Tsunami

By Michael I. Niman, AlterNet. Posted January 14, 2005.

Humanity deserves a solid pat on the back this week, as the global humanitarian outpouring of support for tsunami victims has surpassed all previous relief efforts in history. The American government may have been stingy, but the American people certainly haven't, forking over checks to a host of relief agencies.

We've also seen the tsunami bring out the worst in humanity – the bottom-feeders who move in when their prey is injured or disabled. In this arena we're seeing parasitic entrepreneurs engaging in the purchase and sale of tsunami orphans. And in the Aceh region, where approximately two-thirds of the tsunami victims lived, the government of Indonesia is attempting to finish off their brutal campaign against the Acehnese people and their movement for self-determination.

Aceh is what is called a "breakaway province." Officially part of Indonesia, for 28 years the Acehnese have been fighting a military campaign for independence as a supposedly democratic republic. Using the Bush administration's "war on terror" and the recent U.S. invasion of Iraq as justifications, the Indonesian military invaded Aceh in May 2003. They termed this a "shock and awe" operation, complete with "embedded journalists" and the "blessing of Sept. 11."

Though the Indonesians claimed their military operation was a police action aimed at restoring order in Aceh, it quickly took on the brutal aura of an invasion, complete with F-16 bombing missions and strafing runs using low-flying American-built planes.

The Indonesian military is employing the same tactics in Aceh as it did during its brutal quarter-century occupation of the now-independent nation of East Timor, where military operations killed one third of the Timorese population. In an October 2004 report, Amnesty International documents "a disturbing pattern of grave abuses of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights" in Aceh, including a wave of "unlawful killings, torture, ill-treatment and arbitrary detention" that encompass the entire province.

Amnesty also documents that under Indonesian military occupation, "women and girls have been subjected to rape and other forms of sexual violence," often doled out in retribution when family members are suspected of involvement in the independence fight led by the Free Aceh Movement, which the Indonesians have labeled as a "terrorist organization."

Shock and Exxon

Why is none of this in the news? First there's the "embedded reporter" factor. Indonesia banned all journalists not embedded with the military. And then there's the economic disincentive. The official economy of Aceh is based on a massive Exxon/Mobil natural gas extraction project which, according to estimates on Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now, has netted $40 billion worth of the resource. Very little of this money has flowed into the local Acehnese economy, where nearly a quarter of the children suffered from malnutrition before the tsunami struck.

This explains both Indonesia's motivation to maintain tight control over the province, and the American corporate media's disincentive to cover this remote region of the world.

In this light, the tsunami provided a big boost to the Indonesian campaign against Aceh, killing more Acehnese than they could politically get away while reeking chaos upon the province. Not satisfied with this sudden strategic gift, the Indonesian military immediately set upon the survivors, exacting control over relief operations and withholding food and water as weapons against the independence movement.

Amnesty International has reported that it is difficult to document the extent of the abuses in Aceh since the Indonesians have banned most foreigners (with the notable exception of Exxon/Mobil workers) and all journalists from the province. With relief aid, however, came journalists, who reported on Indonesian troops beating Acehnese who came to relief centers looking for food. The Indonesians were also requiring identification cards from tsunami survivors, many of whose houses are washed away. Acehnese without ID may be interrogated as suspected rebels – an interrogation that in the past often resulted in death. Journalists reporting this story have been ordered to leave Aceh, with one commander admonishing Australian journalists that "Your duty here is to observe the disaster, not the conflict."

Michael I. Niman's previous columns are archived at www.mediastudy.com.

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