BY JAMES BALOWSKI
On September
25, two leaders of the Acehnese civil rights movement Muhammad Nasir
Azis and Kautsar bin Muhammad Yus who were abducted on September 22 by
the Indonesian military (TNI) in the northern Acehnese city of Lhokseumawe
were released following a concerted campaign by Acehnese human right organisations
against their detention.
Muhammad Nasir Azis is a leader of Aceh People's Voice (SURA). Kautsar is the chairperson of the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA). The two men were abducted while on their way home after addressing a public prayer gathering calling for a cease-fire between government troops and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
This was the second time Kautsar has been detained for organising peaceful demonstrations. Last year he was imprisoned for six months after he helped organise a protest against the US oil giant ExxonMobil. He was freed after a court cleared him of the police charges.
The abductions by the TNI are part of a sweeping crackdown throughout the province. Former University of Tasmania academic Lesley McCulloch and US nurse Joy-Lee Sadler were picked up at a checkpoint on September 11. They have been charged with violating their visas, an offence which carries a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.
On September 20, Indonesian police and marines swept through northern Sumatra and detained 200 Acehnese, 90 of whom have since been released after being beaten and forced to pay bribes.
From Green Left Weekly, October 2, 2002.
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