Indonesia's pain: the Peace Zone from hell

It's illegal to fly the "Free Aceh" flag

In this story: Strategic region A ticking time bomb RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Atika Shubert
CNN Correspondent

LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia (CNN) -- Anyone entering Aceh's so-called Peace Zone is welcomed by police checkpoints and barbed wire.

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Troops perch behind sandbags and peer out from behind automatic weapons, on guard for a sneak attacks by separatist Free Aceh rebels.

At night, the road becomes even more treacherous as both guerillas and government troops prey upon motorists, extracting money with every passing vehicle: the cost of safe passage through the Peace Zone.

On the day CNN visited the area, an explosion shakes the quiet village of Pongoi in the heart of the Peace Zone, targeting government troops stationed near by.

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Heavily armed marines sweep the area, frightening villagers in what has become an everyday event.

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"This happens all the time here," says one employee of the Arun gas fields who refused to be named. He was driving to work when the explosion happened. "Everyday there is violence and then shooting.

"Then someone gets killed. Usually civilians. And who set the bomb? Unknown Groups. It's always Unknown Groups."

Peace talks between the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh movement began in June last year. But the talks have proved useless in preventing the conflict from escalating to new heights of violence.

This year alone, more than 300 people have been killed, most of them civilians.

Strategic region

The Peace Zone is anything but; one Indonesian soldier admits gunfights are a nightly occurrence

The Peace Zone was the latest initiative, encompassing the strategic region of North Aceh where the province's lucrative Exxon-Mobil gas fields stand silent.

Continuing threats to employee safety have closed the plant temporarily, depriving Indonesia of badly needed revenue.

The idea was to concentrate on keeping just one area of the province violence free to get Exxon up and running again. It failed.

"Every night there are gunfights here," says Fachrul, one of dozens of soldiers guarding the Exxon facilities.

"They come up in these buses, hidden among the civilian passengers and shoot at you. And what can you do? Shoot back? There are women and children on the bus. But you have to shoot or they kill."

Fachrul should know. He lost one of his good friends in just such an ambush.

A ticking time bomb

The province of Aceh has long been regarded as Indonesia's ticking time bomb, an unresolved separatist insurgency that refuses to die out.

Free Aceh rose to prominence in the 1970s, fuelled by growing resentment against Jakarta's management and profit of Aceh's resources.

In the 1980's Indonesia was able to keep Free Aceh in check by using brutal military force that, human rights groups say, resulted in thousands of killings and countless incidents of kidnapping, torture and systematic rape.

But the fall of former President Suharto in 1998 lifted Aceh's military rule. The decision may have saved the province from military abuse.

It also abandoned, however, the province to the control of a weak and inexperienced national police force and local government.

Dressed in stolen military uniforms, the Acehnese rebels vow to fight the Indonesian government

According to Abu Sofyan Daud, rebel commander responsible for the North Aceh region, it was just the opportunity the Free Aceh guerilla movement needed to gather strength and revive the movement.

"During the military operation, we decided to retreat in order to stop the violence against instead of pursuing independence. But then in 1998, we decided not to retreat anymore against the police and military actions.

We were able to gather our strength, step by step. That's how we fought them." He says proudly, waving to a small unit of rebel fighters, dressed in stolen Indonesian military uniforms.

"Now we can say that 90 percent of the people support us."

Three years on, the Indonesian government has lost control of village administrations to threats by Free Aceh rebels.

Terrified civil servants have fled the province in droves, their abandoned offices standing empty along Aceh's main highway.

Now, military officials warn that unless the government can re-establish itself in the villages, Indonesia runs the risk of losing the Acehnese to commanders like Abu Sofyan.

Aceh braces for crackdown
March 16, 2001
Exxon closes Indonesian fields
March 14, 2001
'Aceh rebels set gas field on fire'
April 7, 2001

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