19 MAY
BRITISH HAWK JETS USED AGAINST FREE ACEH MOVEMENT
19th May 2003 – Indonesia used Hawk jets, supplied and made by the U.K., to front its assault on the Free Aceh Movement. The Guardian’s John Aglionby observed that
“The Hawks were used primarily to scare and intimidate people on the ground by flying low over targets already attacked with rockets by other aircraft, and then over terrain in advance of parachute drops by 600 troops.”
Indonesian newspapers reported that Indonesian Air force Chief Marshal, Chappy Hakim, had obtained clearance first from the British ambassador two months prior to their deployment in the assault on Aceh.
A Human Rights Watch report in December 2003 noted that the invasion was followed by “extrajudicial executions, forced disappearances, beatings, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and drastic limits on freedom of movement.”