After War in Kampung Kresek

After War in Kampung Kresek

Indra Wijaya | 29 January 2021 | Memorialization

The author is a fellowship recipient of human rights, media and transitional justice training organized by AJI Banda Aceh, KontraS Aceh, LBH Banda Aceh and AJAR.

[Indra Wijaya/AJNN]

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Gunshots heard clearly from the mountain direction. On guard residents were surprised to hear the gunshots. Sutrisno along with other residents immediately ran towards the shots. Rumor has it that the armed group Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) has just attacked the village.

“Attack,” Sutrisno instructed the residents to return fire. The previously silent night changed in an instant. Light from gunshots adorns the night in Kampung Kresek, Central Aceh. The village is now called Sedie Jadi.

Four hours before the attack took place, Sutrisno, who was then serving as Reje (Village Chieftain), tried to intercept GAM information using handy talky (HT). They deliberately used HT to find out which areas would be attacked by GAM. Even though they had difficulty deciphering GAM’s code, they tried to guess which village the militants would target next.

They only armed themselves with homemade weapons called kecepek. Ammunition was made out of matches. To get real ammunition at that time was quite difficult. The range of the homemade weapon is up to 200 meters and can kill opponents from a distance of 60 meters. At that time the people there could be said to be quite lucky because one of the residents of Sutrisno’s village was able to create homemade weapons from used materials.

“There were several workshops near the village where they can assemble homemade weapons,” said Sutrisno when met by AJNN, Saturday, early January.

When the people of Sedie Jadi were preparing to defend themselves, several other villages inhabited by Javanese people were massacred. The sweeping carried out by the militants was increasingly massive. Sutrisno’s uncle was one of the victims.

“This occurrence strengthened my suspicion even more that there was an attempt to cast out the Javanese from Aceh,” said Sutrisno.

Sutrisno and other Javanese people have lived in Central Aceh for a long time. He and his father were born there. Even if he was ordered to return to Java, he and the villagers would not know where to run. At that time, he argued that because Indonesia was already independent, being a citizen meant that he had the right to live in Aceh.

The people’s decision was unanimous. The enemy they had to fight was clear. Enemy weapons were very advanced. Meanwhile, the residents of Kampung Kresek were only armed with homemade guns and moreover took time to even open fire.

Worry was growing. At that time, apparatus was not stationed in the village. Even though Sutrisno had already met with the Regent of Central Aceh, Mustafa Tami and pleaded to have security personnels stationed at Pondok Kresek.

Several months before the incident, a resident named Pirin suggested to build a bunker in one side of the village. This will function as a shelter for mothers, elders and children.

Entering the beginning of 2001 the situation was getting heated. Via HT Sutrisno gathered the updated information because for the past year, residents have not slept in their homes. The women and children gathered in one place, while the men stood guard around the village.

Gunnight

The night of 5 July 2001. Like the previous nights, the male residents were still on routine guard. They formed three posts to collect and trade information. The first post was located at the village gate. The second was at the top post and the other was located at the end of the village which was above the height. At that time, information retrieved that there would be an attack. However, they did not know for sure which village were targeted.

Analysing as much as possible, they tried to find information on the location of the GAM attack via HT. From that analysis, it was known that the information on the attack was true. The target was Sidodadi Village and Pondok Gajah, not Sedie Jadi.

However, Sutrisno felt something else. He tried to analyze the information. This is because in Pondok Gajah there was Koramil with 12 TNI members. Also growing information is that six more have been placed in Sidodadi.

As the elder of the village, Sutrisno stood guard at the lowest post equipped with homemade weapons, HT and PDL boots. At the top post, several grown men stood guard. Just before 22.00 WIB, one of them headed towards the bushes to take a pee. From where he was, he looked towards the hill. About 30 meters away he saw someone sneaking around. He immediately informed his guarding friends that the enemy was coming.

Before they could answer, he heard the sound of a gunshot. The night is getting darker. Sutrisno, who was in the lower post, immediately cursed, “Those insolent kids, playing firecrackers at night.” Like in a Hollywood movie, Sutrisno immediately shouted, “Attack!”

Barrage after barrage of automatic weapons were immediately directed at Sutrisno’s group. They exchanged fire. However, Sutrisno and his friends’ home-made weapons were far inferior to GAM’s AK-47 assault rifles.

Due to the limited numbers of ammunition, the shots fired must be more economical. Shots were only fired when the target was clear. Sutrisno and his friends got pressed. His colleagues who were at the top post chose to withdraw. Fortunately, the women, elders and children were safe in bunkers. Sutrisno and his friends continued to fight.

“There were a lot of them, not sure how many. Clearly was a lot,” said Sutrisno.

The electricity went out, but the sky was bright. Be it the light from the gunshots or from the moon that was shining wholeheartedly. The shadows of GAM members were clearly visible.

Each of them was trying to save themselves. This was because Sutrisno advised people to take care of themselves before the war. Even though they were continuously attacked, Sutrisno and his group decided to stood the ground. They were only dodging, sneaked in behind house to house. They couldn’t run. Sneaked like a thief looking for a way out. Shots were fired occasionally.

When they were about to get to the top post, they found one of his men laid down after being shot. His name was Edy Mulyono. He breathed his last when he was about to be evacuated to the bunker. Houses was also targeted. Sutrisno and several other residents’ houses were burnt.

“When the house got burned down, we were still at the location,” said Sutrisno, remembering the incident.

Seeing one of his men got shot, Sutrisno decided not to proceed to the top post. He rather dodged to the other side at the end of the village. Upon arrival, he found several houses burnt down. The sound of gunfire only stopped around 23.30 WIB. The perpetrators left the village by occasionally firing shots into the air.

He estimated the number of perpetrators at hundreds of people. Each of them had a different task, some were holding guns while some were carrying kerosene to burn people’s houses. After the incident, the villagers began to sweep the village.

Pirin, 60 years old, was the first dead victim found. When he was found, Sutrisno did not recognize that it was Pirin. Part of his body was charred. Another victim was Edy Suyono. He was shot and died when he was about to be evacuated to the bunker.

Zen Kaharuddin, 50 years old, died in the bunker due to a heart attack. Then Marnak, 60 years old, died and his body was only found after residents put out the fire in one of the houses. Finally, Yuni Prastiana (2 years old), breathed her last when she was about to be rushed to the hospital after her body was penetrated by hot lead.

“Possibly Yuni got hit by a bullet when GAM was shooting blindly at the house. Incidentally the house was made of wood,” said Sutrisno.

That dark night at Pondok Kresek claimed five lives. 15 houses and village hall were destroyed by fire. The new security forces arrived at the location at around 00.30 WIB. Officers arrived late. “Because they were also afraid to go up,” said Sutrisno.

Slowly Recovered

Nearly 20 years after the attack on Sedie Jadi, the people there began to recover slowly. When I met Sutrisno in Sedie Jadi, he was quite friendly. He wore an orange skullcap matching the color of his sarong. Sedie Jadi itself was located above the Bener Meriah mountains and was on the Simpang KKA road. Cold air still shrouded the village. Sedie Jadi Village, Bukit District is one of the witnesses where ethnic wars occurred when the conflict hit Aceh.

That morning when I entered the village, it was quiet. The doors of each house were closed. On either side, coffee plantations stretched wide. Sedie Jadi was inhabited by 165 households and the main commodity produced in the village was coffee. It was different from when the conflict occurred where the village was only inhabited by 70-90 households more or less.

Recovery in Sedie Jadi began to develop. Residents were doing their activities as usual. They went to the plantation in the morning and returned home in the afternoon. The air was quite cool. The people were friendly. They did not drag on in memories of past problems. They started to mingle with each other, either former combatants or local residents.

Mus Mulyono, for example, the younger sibling of the late Edy Suyono, was busy farming. When he was met, he was preparing to go to the field in Norah Village. It was about 10 minutes trip by motorcycle.

“My brother was one of the victims,” said Mus in a black jacket, slightly mud-stained jeans and boots. His face was a bit sharp, not indicating him as a native of Gayo Land.

Mus said that now he no longer felt grudges over his brother’s death. In his own field, he grew crops with former combatants. They mingled with each other and exchanged information as well as experiences. In fact, he went with the combatants altogether to the field to hunt pigs. If previously the people of Sedie were enemies of GAM, lately they had a common enemy, namely pigs that destroyed fields.

Meanwhile, Ahmad, the family of the late Marnak, said that his family had forgotten about the incident. He and his family slowly restarted life by being busy in the plantation. Growing coffee has become his routine. Even though coffee was at an uncertain price recently, he still carried out this routine.

“On average, the victims who died were all related,” Ahmad said when met in front of his house. He smoked a cigarette slowly. The smoke steamed up in the air mingling with the chill of the evening.

In memory of the victims who died during the attack, Ahmad and other residents built a monument right in the center of the village several years after the tragedy. It has the names of the victims written on it.

They did not build the monument merely to mourn the loss of the victims. It was historical evidence of conflict period, reminder that the Javanese ethnic in Central Aceh had experienced bad events. The monument was also a tribute to the five victims who died. It was also a reminder for the youth so that they will not repeat what Sutrisno and the others have experienced in the past.

The same thing also said by Sutrisno. He was then busy cultivating coffee and nurslings in the plantation. After the conflict subsided, he was a member of the Central Aceh District People’s Representative Council (DPRK) for three periods. He felt that Aceh was at peace after the agreement to end the conflict between the Government of Indonesia and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) in Helsinki, Finland, 15 August 2005 ago. This agreement is known as the Helsinki MoU.

Sutrisno took an active part in maintaining Aceh’s peace, to reduce conflicts in his area. He routinely asked the combatants of Linge region to come down from the mountain and hand over their weapons. Even though the village was once attacked by GAM, he never held a grudge. In fact, he convinced the combatants to come down the mountain.

“I asked them to come down, one by one, because the conflict had caused many people to suffer,” he recalls.

15 years after peace treaty in Aceh, Sutrisno said there was no longer any friction between former GAM members and residents in his village. “Everything had finished when Aceh reached peace treaty. We have become friends,” he said.

Sutrisno said the old incident was only a reminder of the bitterness of Aceh conflict. The harmony between residents and former combatants has become an even interesting study of various parties all over the world. “Various foreign communities and countries visited here to study the peaceful atmosphere,” he said.

He and one of the former GAM member also participated as interviewees to share experiences with 27 foreigners from 16 countries who visited there. The foreigners were members of the Rotary Peace Center and were based at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

The people’s resistance monument still stands in Kampung Kresek until now. “That must be well treated, solely to remember and learn. The hope is that conflicts will never happen again in our land,” said Sutrisno.

He recalled the time when he gathered with former combatants at an event in Central Aceh. The combatants’ suspicions about him still existed. He assumed that the combatants were afraid that he would seek revenge.

“In my point of view, Aceh was already peaceful. So I joined in when they got together. Aceh was already peaceful after all,” he said.

For him, with 15 years passed since peace treaty in Aceh, there was no need to hold past grudges and bring them up again. Because for him, it would remain a history for their next generations. Not that it should be forgotten.

When I met several victims of Aceh conflict, they said the same thing. They have forgiven the perpetrators, either from TNI or GAM combatants. Even though they have forgiven, they have not forgotten the incident. They also said the same thing, that attention to the victims of the conflict should be improved.

For them, those who got caught in the conflict were not merely soldiers and combatants. There were also civilians there who became victims. They also considered the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) as playing a less active role. Because for them, there would be sorrows and wounds as a result of the conflict that hit Aceh.

Source: ajnn.net

Captions:

Image 1: The People’s Resistance Monument. Photo: AJNN/Indra Wijaya