Rukaiyah: Helping fellow human rights victims

Features – August 07, 2007

Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

As the weapons fall silent and peace begins to take root in Aceh, human rights victims such as Rukaiyah are still haunted by past nightmares and unresolved deaths of their relatives.

"My brother wasn’t a member of GAM," said Rukaiyah, referring to the Free Aceh Movement, a secessionist group that signed in August 2005 a peace agreement to end the more than 30-year-long armed conflict in Aceh.

Rukaiyah’s brother Muhammad Amin was killed when security personnel fired at him without any apparent reason in 2001.

Amin was just one of Rukaiyah’s family members that has fallen victim to the protracted armed conflict between GAM and government troops in the Aceh.

Six of her cousins were killed in crossfire during the conflict. Rukaiyah’s grandmother was left disabled after being hit by a bullet and two of her other relatives continue to be traumatized.

And yet, the tragic death of her younger brother depressed her more, she said.

"I don’t know why he was shot to death," Rukaiyah said.

"The incident was just like a dream," she told The Jakarta Post.

"My knees went weak. There was a great feeling of sadness, fear and anger when I saw my brother’s body."

Born in Lamroh village of Cot Keueng subdistrict, Aceh Besar 35 years ago, Rukaiyah was the first of nine children.

Since her brother Amin’s death, Rukaiyah, who graduated from Syiak Kuala University’s faculty of economics, has quit her job as an auditor to become a social worker.

Her main job is to help citizens and families who are victims of state violence.

During the conflict, Rukaiyah also served as a resource person providing help whenever local people were arrested or went missing.

She was also involved in the search for dead bodies following shootings.

She said she wasn’t afraid to go to police stations, military headquarters, hospitals or the Red Cross to ask if they had information about people who had gone missing or who had been arrested.

"Many local people weren’t brave enough to go to police stations or military headquarters to ask about the fate of their loved ones," she said. "If they did, they were considered to be members of GAM."

During the conflict and military emergency in Aceh many people were arrested or went missing. Rukaiyah’s village in Cot Keueng subdistrict was designated as a GAM area by the military. At any given time security officers would carry out operations in the area.

Since GAM and Indonesia signed the peace agreement in 2005, the conditions in Aceh have changed for the better. But for Rukaiyah and victims of human rights violations, things have become worse.

Rukaiyah said when the peace treaty was signed it seemed all those violations were swept aside and forgotten. When they were remembered, it was only because authorities wanted to distribute material assistance from the Aceh Reintegration Authority (BRA). Even then, she said, the aid was not distributed properly.

"Up until now many victims of human rights violations have not received any assistance from BRA," Rukaiyah said.

More than that, she said, many human right victims are still suffering from trauma and too afraid to speak up. "They are afraid they would be again arrested and tortured just like during the conflict period," she said.

"They don’t know what their rights are as victims of human rights violations and what the government’s obligations are to them."

Rukaiyah said she was determined to help the victims of violence so that they would know what their rights were and what the government’s obligations to them were.

She stressed how important the issue was as many victims thought the injustices they suffered were to be accepted as a matter of course, even though they were always the victims.

"I’m also a victim. So when I take the victim-to-victim approach when dealing with people who have suffered, I can be far more effective than social workers who haven’t been victims."

Rukaiyah has started to organize meetings with people who have experienced human rights violations. She has also created a data base of victims who have not registered so far.

In her work she was accompanied by a volunteer from Kontras Aceh (the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence.)

Every month Rukaiyah holds a meeting in each district. There are seven districts in Aceh Besar that she has visited.

The result from those meetings is that she has assembled a community of 45 victims of human rights abuses in Aceh Besar drawn from every districts.

The meetings convened by Rukaiyah were designed to encourage all victims to speak out about their past experiences, lessen the trauma they suffered, and to understand and exercise their rights.

Rukaiyah’s activities in assisting the victims of conflict have been well regarded by some activists in Aceh.

For example, Mustawarah from Kontras Aceh believes that Rukaiyah is a `superior woman’.

"She really helps (the victims). Normally, conflict victims like Rukaiyah should be helped, not help others," Mustawarah said.

Rukaiyah believes that when all victims know their rights they will appreciate the importance of collecting information about human rights violations. She thinks they will then understand the role of the Komisi Kebenaran dan Rekonsiliasi (Reconciliation and Truth Commission) (KKR), which human rights activists have been struggling to establish in Aceh.

"I know this is a difficult struggle (finding the truth behind the killing of Acehnese people.)

"Even the cause of rights activist Munir’s death has not been resolved," she said.

The struggle for justice does take a long time, but Rukaiyah believes that peace cannot come to Aceh until there is justice for those who have suffered human rights violations.