Works In Progress - August 2003 - Support Billy Nessen

[Late Breaking News- On July 30th, as Works in Progress was going to press, Billy Nessen's trial was still in progress but drawing to a close. The prosecutor asked the judges hearing the case for a two month prison sentence for Billy Nessen.]

U.S. journalist, Billy Nessen, is currently on trial in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, currently part of Indonesia. Billy is on trial for two counts of immigration violations and faces a maximum of six years in Indonesian prison. At the first day of the trial, July 23rd, all of the testimony by witnesses had to do with Billy Nessen's relationship to the Free Aceh Movement, (GAM), the organization that has been fighting for the independence of Aceh for Indonesia for over 25 years. This is consistent with the threats over the last six weeks by a few leaders of the Indonesian military to put Billy on trial for directly helping the GAM or other more serious charges. However, according to Billy Nessen's Indonesian lawyer, it is unlikely that they will try him after this current trial ends for these other charges.

The four major witnesses, who testified on July 23rd, were three imprisoned members of the GAM, and Mohahammad Nazar, who leads the Aceh Referendum Information Center, which is demanding a referendum for Aceh on whether it should become independent. They all testified that Billy Nessen knew and had interviewed members of the GAM as a journalist but was not a member of the GAM and had not provided aid to them. The trial will continue on July 30th, and most likely deal more directly with the charges of immigration violations. If the three judges who are hearing the case find Billy guilty, they are likely to sentence him by August 6th.

Billy Nessen is a freelance journalist whose articles and photographs have been published by many papers including the Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle and papers in Australia and other countries. For many years, he has closely followed various movements working for human rights and/or for independence in Aceh. He is married to a human rights and pro-independence Acehnese activist, Shadia Marhaban. He returned to Aceh shortly before May 19th, the day President Megawati Sukarnoputri declared martial law in Aceh province and activated 50,000 Indonesian troops to crush the independence movement there. As a journalist, Billy was traveling with the GAM, which is leading the struggle for the Acehnese independence.

The Indonesian military demanded Billy Nessen surrender by June 14th, 2003. Billy requested that he be allowed to leave Indonesia without being questioned. His request was strongly supported by the Committee to Protect Journalists, an international group of journalists who support the rights of journalists to report what they see without threats or repression. During the period immediately before and after June 14th, he hid in the Acehnese jungle, which was under fierce and murderous attack by the Indonesian military. Based on his understanding of discussions between the Indonesian government, members of the U.S. government including the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia, a leading member of the Committee to Protect Journalists and a few human rights activists, Billy Nessen believed he could turn himself in to the Indonesian military in Aceh, and then be permitted to leave Indonesia without having to give any information about his activities or about the GAM and its military wing (AGAM).

On June 24th, Billy Nessen surrendered to the Indonesian military in Aceh. They transported him to Banda Aceh. Although being treated much better than Acehnese prisoners, most of whom are systematically beaten, Billy was deprived of sleep his first few days in custody. Since then his treatment has significantly improved. While he was questioned a member of the U.S. embassy was present and has seemed to be supportive of Nessen's rights.

Police investigators completed their investigation on July 7th and forwarded Billy's dossier to the prosecutor's office in Banda Aceh. On Thursday, July 17th, Billy was charged with two counts of visa violations for being in Aceh "without securing permission from the martial law administration in Aceh". In the last year, although before martial law was declared in Aceh, two women, Lee Sadler from the United States, and Lesley McCulloch from Great Britain, served sentences of four and five months, respectively for minor visa violations because of their sympathy for the independence movement in Aceh.

The Background to Billy Nessen's case

Aceh, with a population of 4.5 million, is located at the northern tip of Sumatra, the most western island of Indonesia. Before 1945, Aceh was separate from Indonesia, although both were Dutch colonies. When Indonesia won its independence, Aceh was promised autonomy, within Indonesia. Aceh eventually became its own province but was never given the autonomy originally promised. President Sukarno, who led the Indonesian struggle for independence against the Dutch, was overthrown in 1965 in a murderous coup led by the head of the Indonesian military, General Suharto. Estimates are one million

Indonesians were slaughtered by the military for supposedly being communist or pro-communist. Suharto ruled Indonesia for 33 years, he and his family amassed billions in wealth. The United States strongly supported the coup and the Suharto dictatorship.

The murderous repression by the Indonesian government did not end with the 1965 coup. In 1975, upon winning independence from Portugal, East Timor was seized and occupied by Indonesia. One third of its population was killed resisting the Indonesian annexation and occupation. Finally in late 1999, after a referendum where the population of East Timor overwhelmingly voted for independence from Indonesia, the Indonesian military left East Timor; independence became official in 2002.

In 1971, vast quantities of natural gas were found in the northern part of Aceh. Natural gas is a major source of foreign exchange and wealth for Indonesia but little of it goes to the Acehnese people. Most of the wealth goes to the Indonesian elite and to Exxon-Mobil which for 30 years has produced and sold the natural gas in a joint venture with Indonesia's national energy company. As detailed in the lawsuit filed June, 2001 in Washington D.C. Federal District Court by the International Labor Rights Fund, the Indonesian military protects Exxon-Mobil, and Exxon-Mobil buildings are used to interrogate and torture pro-independence forces in Aceh. This case, which is pending, details the close relations between one of the largest U.S. corporations and the Indonesian military.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was formed in 1976. Its military wing (AGAM) has many thousands of fighters. Since its beginning, GAM has worked, struggled and fought with arms for the independence of Aceh. Beyond calling for independence from Indonesia, GAM'S ideology is vague, e.g., they have not spelled out their views on how the economy should be organized, how poverty should be addressed, the role of women, nor their position on human and democratic rights. The Indonesian government has carried out several military offensives and used extreme brutality to try to destroy GAM and the broader movement for independence. From 1989 to 1998, the latter years of Suharto's rule, Aceh was declared a military operation area, closed to foreigners and put under complete

military rule. Estimates are that over 10,000 Acehnese civilians were murdered. Mass graves were found after Suharto was overthrown in 1998. Under the next two Indonesian governments, repression decreased but promises of autonomy and/or a referendum for the Acehnese people were not kept. The support for independence among the people of Aceh seems overwhelming, fueled both by the murderous Indonesian occupation and also by the poverty of the large majority of people and the lack of available social services in this resource-rich area. Many Acehnese people have been imprisoned or killed by the Indonesian government for advocating independence whether or not they have any connections to the GAM.

In December 2002, a cease-fire was agreed to by the Indonesian government and the GAM. At talks in Tokyo in April, 2003, Indonesia demanded that GAM drop its goal of independence and disband. When the GAM refused, Indonesia declared martial law on May 19th. A present, 50,000 Indonesian troops in Aceh, are waging a war that is not only against the GAM but also against the civilian population, using primarily U.S. aircraft such as F-16's. Hundreds of members of GAM have been killed by the Indonesian military although resistance continues. The numbers of murdered civilian Acehnese are unknown although likely to be close to a thousand and growing. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced, and hundreds of schools destroyed. Beatings, executions, rape, disappearances and torture are common. Similar to Indonesian tactics in East Timor, they are setting up para-military death squads. Favored Indonesian journalists are embedded within the Indonesian military, similar to what the U.S. did in Iraq. Independent and foreign journalists are banned. The Indonesian military does not want the world nor the Indonesian people to see the brutality they are responsible for nor the resistance by GAM and the Acehnese people. We should request the end of the Indonesian occupation of Aceh, and the end of U.S. economic and military support for Indonesia.

Although Billy Nessen had been covering the independence struggle before May 19th, 2003, after that date he became one of the only independent journalists left in Aceh, and the only one in the field with the GAM. That is why the Indonesian military has targeted him and threatened to kill him before he turned himself in. They do not want witnesses who can publicize their war against the people of Aceh.

What Can be Done?

It is all of our responsibility to demand that Billy Nessen be released from detention in Aceh and be allowed to immediately leave Indonesia. We should request that he not serve any more time in detention, and that he not serve any time in Indonesian prison. To help Billy Nessen, we need to put pressure on the Indonesian and U.S. governments: the Indonesian government because they are unjustly holding Billy Nessen; and the U.S. government because it is a major supporter of Indonesia and Indonesia does not want to alienate the U.S. and lose military aid. There is opposition in the U.S. Congress to military support for Indonesia. Therefore calls for Billy's release by the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia and the U.S. government are likely to get results.

An excellent source of information on the history and current situation in Aceh and Indonesia is the Indonesia Human Rights Network,

http://www.indonesianetwork.org/

email: kurt@indonesianetwork.org

An up to date news source on Billy Nessen's situation is the English speaking Indonesian daily newspaper, the Jakarta Post, http://www.thejakartapost.com

Key phone numbers, emails and faxes!

1. Indonesian Embassy in Wash, D.C.

Ambassador Soemadi DM Brotodiningrat

tel: 202 775-5200

fax: 202 775-5365

2020 Massachusetts Ave.

Washington, D.C. 20036

2. U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia

Ralph Boyce

tel: (011) 62-21 3435 9000

fax: (011) 62-21 3435-9922

ambassador@jakarta.usembassy.gov

3. Indonesia desk at U.S. State Department, Michael Heath

tel: 202 647-2769

fax: 202 647-7350

4. State Department

Colin Powell,

secretary@state.gov

tel: 202 647-4000

5. U.S. Senator Richard Lugar

Head of the Foreign Relations Committee

tel: 202 224-4814

email: senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov