A Native Son’s Bid to Help End Abuses in Aceh Takes Deadly Turn

When Jafar Siddiq Hamzah arrived in Indonesia from the U.S. this summer, he dreamed of ending the human rights violations that have claimed thousands of casualties in his native Aceh province.

Instead, the New York resident became a victim of the abuse he had hoped to prevent.

Hamzah, a widely respected human rights lawyer, disappeared on the afternoon of Aug. 5 in the city of Medan. His body was found early this month with four others in a ravine 50 miles outside the city. All five had been stripped of clothing and bound with barbed wire, their hands tied behind their backs. Hamzah’s face was smashed in. All of them had been shot or stabbed to death.

Hamzah, 34, joins a growing list of activists who have disappeared or been killed in contentious Aceh province and in Medan, the capital of neighboring North Sumatra province. Aceh is one of many Indonesian provinces racked by violence in recent months as separatists, religious factions, military units and militia thugs vie for supremacy in the post-Suharto era.

Hamzah’s anguished colleagues accused the Indonesian military of involvement in the five deaths and called for an independent investigation.

“We find it odd that so many high-profile people can vanish or be killed, particularly in Medan, Indonesia’s third-largest city, and yet the police have not been able to make a single arrest,” said Sidney Jones, a friend of Hamzah and Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch. “It would seem to indicate incompetence or complicity of the security forces.”

The military has denied any part in Hamzah’s abduction and killing.

His body was identified Sept. 6, but the confirmation of his death was overshadowed by the killing the same day of three U.N. aid workers in West Timor, another of Indonesia’s far-flung troubled provinces. The U.N. workers were slain by members of militia groups originally formed by the Indonesian army.

Although the rioting mob of militia thugs put West Timor on the map as Indonesia’s newest conflict zone, Aceh has been seething with rebellion for more than a decade.

Rich in oil and gas, Indonesia’s westernmost province has long seen its wealth siphoned off by the central government in Jakarta. During the 1990s, rebel leaders pushed for the formation of an independent Islamic state, but the movement was ruthlessly suppressed by the regime of then-President Suharto, and at least 5,000 people died.

Many Acehnese had hoped that the fall of Suharto in 1998 would prompt an inquiry into widespread allegations of human rights abuses by the military, but no investigation ever came.

In June, the new democratic government of President Abdurrahman Wahid and the rebel Free Aceh Movement agreed on a three-month “humanitarian pause” in the fighting in the province. Wahid has offered Aceh autonomy but opposes independence. The truce has since been extended for another three months.

Despite the truce, the conflict has continued to simmer, with dozens killed during the past three months and hundreds driven from their homes. Death threats against activists have been common, and Human Rights Watch estimates that an average of five people disappear each week.

The military accuses the rebels of violating the truce and using the break to rearm their fighters. The rebels contend that Indonesian generals have provoked new fighting because they fear that a peace pact would threaten their extensive business holdings in Aceh.

Whatever the case, the “humanitarian pause” wasn’t enough to prevent the death of Hamzah and the four as-yet-unidentified people found with him.

Born in the city of Lhokseumawe, Hamzah moved to New York in 1996 and was studying for a master’s degree in political science at New School University. In the United States, he founded and headed the International Forum for Aceh to call attention to the conflict in his native province.

Hamzah, a devout Muslim, advocated a peaceful end to the fighting, and his organization last year mediated the first face-to-face peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement. The talks in Bangkok, Thailand, helped set the stage for the first three-month truce.

Hamzah returned to his homeland this summer to set up a legal office, document human rights violations and establish an Acehnese-language newspaper. He planned to return to New York and was enrolled in the fall semester at New School University.

Family members said that he had received death threats and that he suspected he was being followed in Medan. As a precaution, he telephoned his relatives every two hours to report his whereabouts.

On Aug. 5, he left a meeting with an Acehnese businessman about 1:30 p.m. He was never heard from again.

His disappearance prompted his friends and fellow activists to call for an investigation and to seek U.S. intervention. Rep. Joseph Crowley (D-N.Y.) called Hamzah “a man of conscience” and pressed the State Department to take action.

On Sept. 3, residents of the village of Nagalingga noticed a foul odor coming from the ravine and discovered the five bodies. Police said the victims had been dead for at least 10 days.

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta and Amnesty International in London were among those who urged the Indonesian government to find Hamzah’s killers.

“It is crucial now that the government redouble its efforts to find and bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Mr. Hamzah and four others found with him,” the embassy said in a statement.

Hamzah’s death greatly upset members of the human rights community, where he was well liked and highly regarded for the strength of his commitment.

“I am deeply saddened by the passing of such a wonderful colleague and friend,” said Carmel Budiardjo of Tapol, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign. “He was a gentle and kindly man, humane and peace-loving and always inspiring others with his enthusiasm.”

Jones, of Human Rights Watch, called Hamzah “one of the most dedicated human rights defenders I’ve ever known.”

“The most fitting honor to his memory,” she said, “will be to bring to justice not only his killers but those responsible for the thousands of disappearances that have taken place in Aceh over the past decade.”

*

SUHARTO’S SON FREED

Police, ordered to arrest the son of Indonesia’s ex-dictator, questioned and released him. A6