PRD rejects general elections in Aceh

Kompas – July 31, 2003
TNI solider stands in front of women in Lhokseumawe - May 25, 2003 (BBC)
TNI solider stands in front of women in Lhokseumawe - May 25, 2003 (BBC)

Jakarta -- The People’s Democratic Party (PRD) has rejected holding general elections in Aceh for as long as the military emergency in Tanah Rencong [Aceh] continues.

“Until a process of self-determination is implemented, an election has no democratic basis what so ever in the eyes of the Acehnese people. An election held under the force of arms will become a means to compliment a new oppression of the Acehnese people”, explained the secretary general of the PRD Natalia Scholastika at a press conference at the PRD’s offices in Jakarta on Wednesday (30/7).

“The reality is that the more urgent need for the Acehnese people which should be supported by the democratic opposition in Indonesia, is that the government must immediately revoke the military emergency status which is no more than a “New Military Operation Zone”(1) in Aceh. The abolition of the military emergency status must be followed by the withdrawal of all military personnel along with providing a role for the involvement the international community in a peace process [for the Acehnese people] to determine their own future”, said Natalia.

According to Natalia, this demand reflects a responsibility which we have for the future of the Acehnese people as a consequence of the decades of capitalist and militaristic exploitation by the New Order [regime of former President Suharto].

“The responsibility of the united democratic opposition in Indonesia at the moment is to build solidarity with the [Acehnese people’s] struggle and the oppression which the people of Aceh have experienced, even more so after civil freedoms in Aceh were killed by the military”, Natalia added. (win)

Notes

1. One of the grievances fueling the desire for independence in Aceh is the secret war waged against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the 1990s under the Suharto military dictatorship, which lasted from 1965 to 1998. From May 1990 to August 1998, Aceh was declared a Military Operations Area, during which the armed forces carried out extensive counterinsurgency operations against the GAM. In this period, thousands of civilians were killed, disappeared or tortured.

[Translated by James Balowski.]