August 7, 1998 became a new milestone for Aceh. On that day, the Armed Forces Commander General Wiranto announced the removal of the status of military operations in Aceh.
The news of the revocation of the DOM status was greeted by the excitement of the students and the people of Aceh. For 10 years, from 1989 to 1998, the New Order government sent tens of thousands of troops and police to Aceh to quell the Free Aceh rebellion.
Military Operation Area is actually called the official Red Nets Operation. This is a form of President Suharto's response to Hasan Muhammad di Tiro who proclaimed Independence Aceh in the Halimon mountains of Pidie on December 4, 1976.
From the top of Halimon - now in the Pidie Jaya region, Hasan Tiro is suing the existence of Aceh within the framework of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia. Hasan Tiro is disappointed with Jakarta that makes Aceh a dairy cow. Natural wealth is seized, but its citizens are not prosperous; suffer and poor.
The nationalist movement that Hasan Tiro echoed received a number of Acehnese scholars and youth. Quietly, the movement grew. In fact, Hasan Tiro dispatched many Acehnese youth to Libya to get a military education. Tersebutlah name Muzakir Manaf, Darwis Djeunib, Abu Razak, and others as a graduate of Tripoli.
Since then, Tiro and his followers have become the most hunted by the Indonesian apparatus: life or death!
In late 1989, Suharto enacted a military operation under the Red Nets password. The goal is to leverage the power of Hasan Tiro's followers that the state has branded as the Security Distortion Movement (GPK).
Red Net Operations - in practice - are less selective in pursuing guerrillas. Government forces allegedly committed large-scale and systematic human rights violations during the implementation of the military operation.
Throughout the decade, Aceh is in dark history. Human life is no more valuable than chicken life. Almost every day we find news of the deaths of people who by the media called the GPK. We also often hear news of Aceh women stained by rape, sexual harassment, arrest, kidnapping and burning of public facilities, and homes.