Insular Southeast Asia - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 477

gas, gold, tin, and coal. It also produces coffee, pepper,
rice, tobacco, rubber, and timber.
Aceh was where Islam first gained a foothold in In-
donesia, and it was the last part of the archipelago to
fall to Dutch rule. After a difficult colonial rule lasting
69 years, the Dutch withdrew from Aceh in 1942. Aceh was
persuaded (bribed) to become a part of an independent
Indonesia in 1949. Since then, many Javanese have been
moved to Aceh in an attempt to integrate the region into
the larger Indonesia. Strict Acehnese Muslims resent the
more religiously relaxed and alien Javanese.
Complaining that Indonesia was sucking the re-
sources out of Aceh without fair revenue return, the
Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front was formed in
1976. The movement is also known as Gerakan Aceh
Merdeka or “Free Aceh Movement.” In that same year,
Aceh declared itself independent. Since then, thousands
of Acehnese were killed by the Indonesian army . Thou-
sands more simply disappeared. There are more than
16,000 recorded orphans in Aceh. Furthermore, about
15,000 Javanese migrants were driven out of areas where
they had lived since the 1970s.
Human rights were systematically violated in Aceh by
the Indonesian army . The people were forbidden to use
their own language in written form. There was no freedom
of expression. Workers who worked for foreign companies
at below-subsistence wages were prevented from forming
trade unions. Hundreds of schools and other public build-
ings were burned and 70,000 refugees driven into impov-
erished camps along the northern coast. Nevertheless, the
rebels fought the Indonesian army to a stalemate, a situa-
tion that would probably have continued had it not been
for a dramatic turn of events in 2004.
The epicenter of the 2004 undersea earthquake in
the Indian Ocean was near the far northern coast of
Sumatra, and Aceh was directly in the path of the most
powerful tsunami. Entire towns and villages were swept
away and hundreds of thousands died. The capital city of
Banda Aceh was devastated.
Subsequent international relief efforts opened Aceh
to the outside world as it had never been before. Sud-
denly , the Indonesian army and the rebels found them-
selves working together in salvage and rescue missions
rather than warfare. The upshot was a truce and an agree-
ment whereby the army would withdraw and the rebels
would drop their demand for independence.
The 2005 peace agreement between Jakarta and the
Free Aceh Movement will provide the province with up-
ward of US$3 billion a year in special disbursements
from oil and gas fields now controlled by the central gov-
ernment. The development community has seeded a

consequences of land clearance, canal digging, and
firing. Even the rice that was supposed to grow in
the devastated land never materialized. As new fires
broke out in 1999, the government pronounced the
failure of the project and blamed small-farmers for
the debacle.

NATIONAL INTEGRATION
National integration is of primary concern in Indonesia.
After Suharto' s downfall in 1998, there was a power vac-
uum and a fear of disintegration. In many outlying areas,
local autonomy or independence is seen as the panacea
for long-felt ills, and reformasi has allowed long-seething
discord to surface.
In northern Sumatra, there have been violent clashes
over land rights between farmers and security forces pro-
tecting the land rights of plantation owners. In southern
Sumatra, there has been fighting between the locals and
transmigrasi . On the island of Ambon in Maluku, Chris-
tians have clashed with Muslims. Christians and Ja-
vanese Muslims have also clashed on the island of
Sulawesi.
Since 1998, the government has recognized the need
for decentralization and more autonomy for Indonesia' s
different regions. Autonomy would allow outlying re-
gions to make their own arrangements with foreign in-
vestors and set their own development priorities. This
could spur voluntary migration from overcrowded Java.
On the other hand, these areas are typically rich in natu-
ral resources, and the revenue they generate is needed by
the central government in Jakarta. Autonomy is not
likely for most areas.
Take Kalimantan as an example. This province is
rich in coal resources, most of which lie under primary
forest. Indonesia' is oil is expected to run out in the next
20 or 30 years and coal will be an essential fuel. What
will happen to the people and the environment of Kali-
mantan? Kalimantan will remain an essential part of a
developing Indonesia.
T Two very important regions of dissent are Aceh and
Papua. Aceh, in northern Sumatra, and Papua, in the
western half of New Guinea, both have had long-running
separatist movements.

ACEH
About 4.2 million Acehnese live in the northern Suma-
tran province of Aceh. The region is important for oil,