SUMMARY
Since 1989, Indonesian government forces have employed one-sided violence primarily within the context of the separatist conflicts in East Timor, Aceh, and Papua Province (Irian Jaya) where they have targeted both suspected supporters of the insurgents and peaceful protesters. At times, one-sided violence has also been used against anti-government demonstrations in other parts of the country, especially during the authoritarian Suharto administration which was ousted in 1998.
Starting with the one-sided violence aimed at suspected supporters of insurgent movements, this was primarily executed by the Indonesian armed forces in areas where martial law had been proclaimed. In these areas, the government often restricted the access for media and NGOs, wherefore many incidents remained unreported or with unclear circumstances. There were however, occasional reports that suggested that government forces, primarily the military, and the secret intelligence services, pursued policies of harassment of the civilian population which included one-sided violence as well as torture and arbitrary detentions. In most cases of such one-sided violence, the victims were executed individually or in small groups.
The second type of one-sided violence by the Indonesian government forces took place within the context of anti-government demonstrations. Such events were reported from the capital Jakarta and other cities but were particularly common in response to peaceful demonstrations demanding secession for East Timor. In many of these incidents, the Indonesian military took up positions surrounding the demonstrators before opening fire on the crowd, often causing dozens of deaths.
The territory that eventually became the independent state of East Timor in 2002 was affected by a severe campaign of one-sided violence in the lead-up to and during a 1999 UN-organized referendum on independence. The Indonesian military intelligence organized and recruited armed militias in a concerted effort to discourage the Timorese population from voting for secession. These militias, at times, accompanied by military staff, were lightly armed with guns and machetes and indiscriminately attacked civilians all over Timor island during roughly a year starting in late 1998. Many of these attacks were later documented by the report of the 2006 East Timor Reconciliation Commission.
The Government of Indonesia first became active as a one-sided actor in UCDP data in 1990, when the one-sided violence resulted in over 25 civilian deaths, even though there were unconfirmed reports of one-sided violence in earlier years. The threshold was reached in mid-July of that year when government soldiers shot 26 villagers in Buloh Blang Ara village of Aceh Province.
