Gov. Irwandi, also an ex-rebel, claims to have had informants linked to the group since early last year. As Israel launched its war on Gaza, an Islamist group called the Islamic Defenders’ Front (FPI) put out the call for recruits to be trained for holy war in Palestine. Once in Java, half a dozen of these men fell into the orbit of Dulmatin’s group, and began the drift back to Aceh.
‘They were really naked, but we waited until they violated the law. If we made an arrest earlier of course we wouldn’t (be able) to catch the big guy,’ Irwandi says.
The hand-in-glove cooperation between former insurgents and Indonesian authorities was a ‘good example of cooperation and re-integration post-conflict,’ Irwandi says, but there’s no shaking the fact that Acehnese remain deeply suspicious of Indonesia.
Turning the Other Cheek
Abdul Majid was riding back after a fishing trip on his motorbike with his friend Kamaruddin and two 14-year-old boys when they stumbled into the initial police raid. In the darkness, he heard a shouted warning, followed by a shot over their heads, and then a peppering of bullets that sent them sprawling to the ground.
As Kamaruddin, a former GAM fighter bled to death, and one boy lay wounded, Abdul was pinned down as police removed his shoes and bound him with his laces. One officer removed his helmet and beat Abdul over the head with it.
Abdul says the actions were typical of the ‘arrogant’ police. ‘It’s clear they didn’t have enough discipline,’ he says. But he adds that it was important to get rid of terrorists, and at least the provincial police chief apologised over the incident.
Hendra Fadli, the local head of the rights group handling the incident, Kontras, says the clear use of excessive force has caused anger but ‘Acehnese are really tired of armed conflict. So groups like (the militant cell) become a common enemy, they’re seen as destroying the peace.’
KPA spokesman Machsalmina similarly says turning the other cheek over the killing of one if its members was necessary in order to ensure the militants were expelled.
Besides, he says, extremism has never been an Acehnese problem, but an issue among ‘Indonesians.’ Acehnese had to kick this group out, because, he says referring to an old conspiratorial refrain often heard in Aceh, shadowy forces in Jakarta were likely somehow behind them.
‘I’m not saying it’s an institution—these are third parties who (want to) disturb the peace in Aceh,’ he says.
Analysts still warn the emergence of the Aceh group shows regional jihadi networks are stronger and more fluid than previously thought, and that in the wake of the latest setback the new alliance could return to the tactics of Noordin Top or try to establish a base elsewhere.
But in Aceh, at least, any return seems extremely unlikely.
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