The show must go on, says Susilo<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
While offering a last minute chance for Aceh rebels to avert a
\nfull scale war, the government's chief security minister said on
\nWednesday that a military campaign would likely go ahead after
\nMonday's deadline.<\/p>\n
\"The show must go on,\" Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Coordinating
\nMinister for Political and Security Affairs, told a meeting with
\nthe nation's top editors.<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri ordered the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI) on Tuesday to launch a military campaign in Aceh,
\npart of what the government calls a combined operation along with
\ncampaigns for humanitarian assistance, justice, and the
\nrestoration of local government services.<\/p>\n
The government has set a May 12 deadline for the Aceh Free
\nMovement (GAM), which has been fighting for a separate state
\nsince 1976, to return to the negotiating table.<\/p>\n
Jakarta has also attached GAM's acceptance of Aceh's special
\nautonomy status under the republic, and GAM's surrendering of its
\nweapons, as preconditions for the peace talks.<\/p>\n
The combined forces of TNI and the National Police in Aceh
\nwould be bolstered to around 50,000 from 40,000 for the launching
\nof the security campaign next week, Susilo disclosed.<\/p>\n
The huge number was needed not only to confront GAM forces,
\nestimated by the TNI at 5,000, but also to protect the Aceh
\npeople in areas once they come under TNI control, to secure
\nstrategic sites. and a host of other things, he said.<\/p>\n
On the humanitarian assistance campaign, he said the
\ngovernment would make sure that no Acehnese would go hungry while
\nthe operation took place, that they would not be deprived of
\naccess to health care, that they would be able to continue to
\nvisit houses of worship, and that children would be able to go to
\nschool.<\/p>\n
The minister, himself a retired Army general, said President
\nMegawati would decide on the legal umbrella under which the
\ncombined operations would be launched, citing four possibilities:
\nmaintenance of law and order, a state of civil emergency, martial
\nlaw, or war.<\/p>\n
A decision would be made before Monday, he said, adding that
\nthe government has also scheduled a meeting with the House of
\nRepresentatives on Wednesday to discuss its policy in Aceh.<\/p>\n
Susilo also reiterated that there was still a \"window of
\nopportunity\" for negotiations before the Monday deadline.<\/p>\n
\"I admit, it's a small window, and it would probably need
\ndivine intervention for this to happen,\" he said.<\/p>\n
GAM had rejected Jakarta's ultimatum but said that it was
\nprepared to meet with the Indonesian government once again only
\nafter May 12.<\/p>\n
Talks between the government and GAM had been brokered by the
\nGeneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC) since 2000. The talks led
\nto the historic signing of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement
\n(COHA) on Dec. 9, 2002.<\/p>\n
After a lull of about two months, the two sides resumed
\nfighting, and the escalation of tension has reached the point
\nwhere the December agreement is as good as dead. Both GAM and the
\ngovernment have traded blame for undermining the agreement.<\/p>\n
Last ditch efforts to salvage the agreement failed when GAM
\npulled out of a meeting in Geneva on April 25 at the last minute,
\neven as Indonesian representatives had arrived there.<\/p>\n
Susilo refused to give a time frame on how long the next
\nmilitary campaign in Aceh would last.<\/p>\n
The last TNI campaign in Aceh lasted 10 years. It was
\nabandoned in 1998 after it became clear that not only had the
\nmilitary failed miserably, but it was also responsible for
\natrocities that went unreported, sending more Aceh people to the
\nGAM fold.<\/p>\n
This time, TNI had promised that it would allow national and
\ninternational reporters and observers to monitor the war and
\nensure that the operation would not be marred by human rights
\nviolations.<\/p>\n
Susilo insisted that the government had exhausted all peaceful
\nmeans to solve the Aceh problem, and that GAM had taken advantage
\nof the cessation of hostilities agreement to consolidate and even
\nrecruit and rearm in violation of the COHA terms and spirit.<\/p>\n
\"If we could avert the use of force, we would,\" he said,
\nadding however that the situation in Aceh had reached the point
\nwhere it was threatening the people of Aceh, as well as the
\nterritorial integrity of the republic.<\/p>\n
Negotiations, he added, could even resume while the military
\noperation was underway. \"Our doors remain open,\" he said.<\/p>\n
War and diplomacy could take place simultaneously, he said,
\nrecalling Indonesia's struggle for independence in the late
\n1950s, and the military campaign to win Papua in the early 1960s
\nas examples of the successful two-pronged approach.<\/p>",
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