REBELLION IN ACEH

The rebellion in Aceh was fomented by the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) to gain independence from Indonesia between 1976 and 2005. Military operations carried out by the TNI and Polri (2003-2004), along with the devastation caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake led to a peace agreement and the end of rebellion. Amnesty International released Time Past Face reports in April 2013 after the Indonesian government was deemed to have failed its obligations under the 2005 peace agreement. The report warned that new violence would occur if the issue was not resolved.

Timeline

The first stage
The tendency of the centralized system of the Soeharto government, along with other grievances, prompted the Acehnese public figure Hasan di Tiro to form the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on 4 December 1976 and declared Aceh's independence. The main threats considered to be the background are to the conservative Islamic practices of Acehnese society, the Indonesian government culture which is considered "neo-colonial", and the increasing number of migrants from Java to the province of Aceh. The unfair distribution of incomes from Aceh's substantial natural resources is also a matter of debate. The first GAM offensive in 1977 was committed against Mobil Oil Indonesia, a shareholder of PT Arun NGL, a company operating Arun gas fields.

At this stage, the number of troops mobilized by GAM is very limited. Although there has been considerable dissatisfaction in Aceh and the possible sympathy of GAM's goals, this does not invite active participation of the masses. In recognition of Hasan di Tiro himself, only 70 people joined him and most of them came from Pidie district, mainly from the villages of Tiro himself, who joined because of personal loyalty to the family in Tiro, while others were disillusioned with the central government.

Many GAM leaders are well educated youth and professionals who are members of Aceh's upper and middle economic class. The first cabinet of GAM, formed by Tiro in Aceh between 1976 and 1979, comprised the following Darul Islam rebel leaders:
Teungku Hasan di Tiro : Guardian of State, Minister of Defense, and Supreme Commander
Dr Muchtar Hasbi : Vice President, Minister of Home Affairs
Teungku Usman Lampoh Awe : Minister of Finance
Teungku Ilyas Leube : Minister of Justice
Dr Husaini M. Hasan : Minister of Education and Information
Dr Zaini Abdullah : Minister of Health
Dr Zubir Mahmud : Minister of Social Affairs
Dr Asnawi Ali : Minister of Public Works and Industry
Amir Ishak : Minister of Communication
Amir Mahmud Rasyid : Minister of Trade
Malik Mahmud : Minister of Foreign Affairs

The middle-class soldiers and soldiers who joined GAM themselves had fought in 1953-1959 in the Darul Islam rebellion. Many of them are elderly men who remain loyal to former Aceh military governors and Darul Islam rebel leader in Aceh, Daud Beureueh. The most prominent person of this group is Teungku Ilyas Leube, a famous cleric who was once the leader of the Darul Islam rebellion. Some members of Darul Islam are also likely linked to Tiro through family or regional ties, but their loyalty is primarily to Beureueh. It is these people who provide military knowledge, combat, local knowledge and logistical skills that do not have young educated GAM leaders.

At the end of 1979, the Indonesian military's suppression actions destroyed GAM, GAM leaders ended up in exile, imprisonment, or murder; his followers are scattered, running away and hiding. Its leaders such as Di Tiro, Zaini Abdullah (GAM's health minister), Malik Mahmud (GAM foreign minister), and Dr Husaini M. Hasan (GAM education minister) have fled abroad and the original GAM cabinet stopped functioning.

The second stage

In 1985, in Tiro gained Libyan support for GAM, taking advantage of Muammar Gaddafi's policy of supporting a nationalist uprising through "Mathaba Against Imperialism, Racism, Zionism and Fascism." It is unclear whether Libya has funded GAM, but it is definitely a shelter where GAM soldiers can receive much needed military training. A number of GAM fighters trained by Libya during the period 1986-1989 or 1990 recount different acknowledgments. GAM recruiters claim that there are about 1,000 to 2,000 while press reports written on Indonesian military reports state that they number 600-800. Among the GAM leaders who joined during this phase were Sofyan Dawood (who later became commander of GAM Pasè, Aceh Utara) and Isaac Daud (who was spokesman for GAM in Peureulak, East Aceh).

The second phase incident began in 1989 following the return of GAM training participants from Libya. GAM operations include raids of weapons, attacks on police and military posts, arson and killings targeted to police and military personnel, government informants and pro-Indonesian figures.

Despite failing to gain broad support, the more aggressive actions of the GAM group made the Indonesian government to enforce repressive measures. The period between 1989 and 1998 later became known as the era of the Regional Military Operations (DOM) of Aceh when the Indonesian military stepped up counter-insurgency operations in Aceh. This move, though tactically destroying GAM guerrillas, has resulted in casualties among the local civilians in Aceh. Feeling alienated from the Republic of Indonesia after the military operation, Acehnese civilians later gave support and helped GAM rebuild its organization when the Indonesian military was almost entirely withdrawn from Aceh on the orders of President Habibie at the end of the 1998 era after the fall of Soeharto. Significant GAM commanders have either been killed (GAM commander Pasè Yusuf Ali and senior GAM commander Keuchik Umar), arrested (Ligadinsyah) or run away (Robert, Arjuna and Ahmad Kandang).

Third phase
In 1999, there was a disorder in Java and an ineffective central government because the fall of Soeharto benefited the Free Aceh Movement and resulted in a second stage of rebellion, this time with considerable support from the people of Aceh. In 1999 the troop withdrawal was announced, but the deteriorating security situation in Aceh later led to the resumption of more troops. The number of soldiers is believed to have risen to about 15,000 during President Megawati Soekarnoputri's tenure (2001 -2004) in mid-2002. GAM is able to control 70 percent of rural areas across Aceh.

During this phase, there are two brief periods of cessation of the conflict: the "Humanitarian Pause" of 2000 and the "Cessation of Hostilities Agreement" (COHA) which took place only between December 2002 when it was signed and ended in May 2003 when the government Indonesia declared a "martial law" in Aceh and announced that it wanted to destroy GAM once and for all.

In a break from the use of military means to achieve independence, GAM shifted its position in favor of holding a referendum. In the November 8, 1999, pro-referendum demonstration in Banda Aceh, GAM provided support by providing transport to rural protesters to the provincial capital. On 21 July 2002, GAM also issued the Stavanger Declaration after the "Worldwide Achehnese Representatives Meeting" meeting in Stavanger, Norway. In the declaration, GAM declared that "the State of Aceh is practicing the democratic system." This impulse of democratic rights and human rights in GAM is seen as a result of the efforts of urban-based groups in Aceh that promote these values ​​because of a freer and more open environment after the fall of Soeharto's authoritarian regime.

The deterioration of civilian security conditions in Aceh led to strong security measures launched in 2001 and 2002. Megawati's government finally in 2003 launched a military operation to end the conflict with GAM for good and emergency was stated in Aceh province. In November 2003 martial law was extended again for six months because the conflict had not been resolved. According to a Human Rights Watch report, the Indonesian military has again committed human rights abuses in this operation as in previous operations, with more than 100,000 people displaced in the first seven months of martial law and extrajudicial killings. This conflict is still ongoing when suddenly the December 2004 Tsunami disaster devastated the province of Aceh and froze the conflict that occurred in the midst of the greatest natural disaster in Indonesia's history.