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.The organisation maintainedits predominantly ideological character until the end of DOM.Thesubsequent withdrawal of non-organic TNI troops provided GAM withan opportunity to expand not only its membership but also its territo-rial base.This brought two new categories of recruits: first, those whohad been victims of DOM, who were motivated by revenge, and sawGAM as a means to settle scores with Jakarta and the security forces;second, those who saw GAM as a means for personal economic gain.They included local thugs or preman, petty criminals, and unemployedyouth.The former category mainly joined from GAM s traditional terri-tory of Pidie, North and East Aceh areas hit hard by counter-insur-gency operations; the latter joined from GAM s new territory, areaswhich had not been so much affected DOM: West Aceh, Central Aceh,South-East Aceh, South Aceh, and Aceh Singkel.Both elements of recruits diluted GAM s ideological character andadded an intensely personal element to it.Yet, while the victims ofDOM popularised GAM s struggle and thus lent legitimacy to its cause,the preman undermined the movement s credibility.Their actionsrevealed how thin the line had become between a political movement[ 207 ] OIL WARSwhich needed to extract funds to increase its military capacity in orderto further its ideological agenda, and members of a movement whowere using the GAM label as a cover for personal greed.Whether theaim was to finance an increase in GAM s military capacity or whetherit was to line individual pockets, the Lhokseumawe industrial complexplayed a key role, albeit indirectly, in keeping the conflict going.GAM had three main sources of revenue: first, taxation/extortion;second, foreign donations; and third, crime, drugs, and kidnapping.37The first and the third directly targeted the oil industry, third partycontractors and the population adjacent to the Arun Field clusters.GAM levied an Aceh State tax or pajak nanggroë on all elements of soci-ety.According to senior GAM negotiator Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, pajaknanggroë was not new:It has been collected since GAM was established by di Tiro andit is based on Islam.In Islam if there is a struggle there is infaq.But now that Aceh is no longer struggling for an Islamic stateit is called pajak nanggroë.It was changed from infaq to pajaknanggroë with the Humanitarian Pause in 2000.But it has onlyrecently become an issue because the Indonesian governmenthas made it an issue.38GAM believed it had the right to tax all parts of Acehnese society andGAM Pase commander Sofyan Dawod did not think the majority of thepopulation minded:The Indonesian government has the right to tax and so doesGAM.But the Acehnese do not object to our taxes while theydo object to paying taxes to Indonesia, because that money isthen used to send troops and kill them while we use the tax todefend them.39According to Dawod, the level of taxation depended on the project orthe salary.There were two bases for taxation, first taxation of the profit,which he claimed was around 2.5 per cent, and, second the value of theproject.Additional contributions were sought for holidays hari raya and Dawod claimed these were used for Acehnese orphans.Forinstance, ExxonMobil was asked for a special Idul Adha holidayallowance of Rp 250 million.According to Dawod, farmers and teach-ers did not pay taxes, but we do ask for a voluntary contribution of oneday s earning per month.We also ask for donations from Aceh swealthy to help society, to cover state functions and expenses, and alsoto buy weapons. 40GAM particularly targeted merchants in Aceh Besar, many of whomwere ethnic Chinese, contractors in the Lhokseumawe industrial area,[ 208 ] ACEHJavanese transmigrants, particularly those in the coffee plantations ofCentral Aceh, and civil servants.The hardest-hit area, however, was theLhokseumawe industrial complex.This area was under GAM s Samu-dra Pase finance section, which included a special sub-section for vitalprojects.The importance of the industrial complex to GAM can be seenby the fact that Lhoksukon alone had three tax collectors.From mid 1999, EMOI experienced not only an increase in generalviolence against its workforce and facilities but also an increase in extor-tion attempts by people claiming to be GAM.GAM tax collectors withmobile phone contact numbers were identified in faxed letters, and somecommunications asked the company to pay certain taxes to GAM.AsCummings explained, these letters supposedly from GAM asked formoney.We have never knowingly paid money to anyone with GAM.However, we do not know the political affiliations of the over 3000Acehnese workers involved in EMOI s business operations in Aceh.41 Thesuspicion that GAM either was inside or had access to inside informa-tion was echoed by foreign and local contractors.One foreign contractor,who did not want to be named, related how GAM demanded 5 per centof his profits.Often these demands came by text message to his mobilephone.He changed his number twice, and within two weeks GAM hadhis new number.Also, GAM seemed to be fully aware of his travel sched-ule.He never once got a tax demand when he was in Jakarta or overseas.But as soon as he landed in Lhokseumawe, GAM would be in touch.Hefurther said that while he was only asked for 5 per cent, his local third-party contractors were being issued with demands of up to 20 per cent.And while he had the privilege of being able to stay in the protectedcompound in the industrial complex, and thus had the luxury of notpaying the taxes , his local staff did not
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