STATE OF ACHEH
OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
c/o: ASNLF - P.O. BOX 130, S-145 01 NORSBORG, SWEDEN
TEL: +46 8 531 83833
FAX: +46 8 531 91275
PRESS RELEASE
26 January, 2004
The transfer of Achehnese prisoners to Java.
Eighty-nine Achehnese that the Indonesian colonial government branded as members of the Free Acheh Movement (GAM)
arrived in Yogyakarta last Sunday from their jail cells in Kutaraja (Banda Acheh), in the second such transfer to
prisons in Java. The first batch of 54 prisoners arrived on Thursday and were transferred to Semarang and neighboring
towns to serve their jail terms. The 143 prisoners have all been sentenced to more than three years in jail. While 79
prisoners were then transported aboard police trucks to the prison island of Nusakambangan in Cilacap regency, Central
Java, the remaining 10 were taken to a penitentiary in the provincial capital of Semarang. Twenty-seven of the 79
convicts would be imprisoned in Nusakambangan Penitentiary's Batu jail.
The Achehnese arrived chained to each other at the hands and ankles, and a joint military and police force kept tight
watch.
The leadership of the Government of the State of Acheh is naturally very angry about this yet another blatant disregard
of human rights by Jakarta, but we are not surprised at all. Indonesian Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Yusril
Ihza Mahendra angrily stated: "A newspaper has cynically said that we are aping the approach of the Dutch East Indies
colonial administration. That is not true. This is not exile; the justice and human rights ministry has nothing to do
with politics,"
But of course this practice is nothing than a modus operandi that Jakarta copies from its former colonial master, the
Dutch.
In fact today we can see clearly to what extend the Dutch Government is adamant in assuring its legacy of colonialism to
be continued by the neo-colonialist nation it set up in Jakarta when it left more than half a century ago, being forced
by a popular struggle spearheaded by Acheh. When most other Western powers are gradually cutting off military assistance
to Indonesia, the Dutch has signed an agreement to sell warships to Indonesia, on the pretext that the Indonesian Navy
was not involved in the conflict in Acheh. Maybe the Dutch Government has forgotten that the small airfield it built in
Blang Bintang, Kutaraja (Banda Acheh), is not capable of receiving 50 000 troops within a few days of the declaration of
Martial Law in Acheh eight months ago. Most of these troops were SHIPPED by the Navy transports vessels, escorted by
warships. The Dutch Government seems also to be conveniently oblivious of the fact that the Indonesian Navy took out
more than 5000 villagers from Breueh island off Banda Acheh coast within a week of the declaration of Martial Law, and
moved them to concentration camps, then proceded with the naval and aerial bombardments of the island, "against GAM
bases" (the emptied villages, to make sure those running away to the jungle have nowhere to live). The island has now
been turned into a naval base. The Dutch government does not need intelligence report to know about this, the Indonesian
and international press covered this incident widely when it happened. From last month, and is still going on today,
reinforcements of the Raiders battalions are being sent to Acheh by navy vessels.
Indeed, the exiling of the prisoners from Acheh to Java proves once again the colonial nature of the Indonesian to hold
on Acheh. We call on the international community to condemn this measure and to send monitors regularly to look into
their condition.
Dr. Zaini Abdullah
Minister of Foreign Affairs
of the State of Acheh, in exile
Stockholm.