Aceh disorder 'beyond police capability', says Widodo
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Military Chief Adm. Widodo A.S. defended on Thursday the government's plan to deploy troops to Aceh to quell the separatist movement.
"The security problems in Aceh are beyond the police's capability," Widodo said after a Cabinet meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office.
"We have to look at things objectively, because what is happening in Aceh is an armed insurgency."
He stressed, however, that Cabinet had decided the military would only be deployed to back police in restoring order.
Senior military officers had earlier said at least a battalion and three companies of combat troops from East Java were on standby for immediate deployment to Aceh.
Reports said the troops were sent recently to the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) training and education center in West Java for counter-insurgency training and commando exercises.
Earlier this month the government officially branded the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) as separatists.
The government had also announced it would launch "limited security operations" against rebels in Aceh.
Acehnese strongly criticised the move, saying limited security operations would be tantamount to the DOM (military operation zone), a harsh military regime imposed in Aceh up until August 1998 which led to widespread human rights abuses.
Speaking to reporters later on Thursday, Defense Minister Mahfud M.D. reiterated that the operations "will only be limited" and that control would be in the hands of civilian officers.
He also said concrete measures to deal with the separatists in Aceh were being formulated.
Deaths
Meanwhile in Aceh, it was revealed that at least 15 police and two military officers have been killed over the past fortnight.
"The officers died in various incidents, from ambushes, booby traps and bomb explosions to drive-by shootings," the deputy spokesman of Cinta Meunasah II Operation, Comr. Sudarsono, told The Jakarta Post by telephone from Banda Aceh.
On Thursday around 10 a.m. an ambush by GAM rebels in East Aceh killed police Brig. Khaidir, he said. A rebel named Abdul Wahab, 45, also died.
"The joint police and military patrol was passing the Keude Blang village in Idi Rayeuk district, East Aceh, when suddenly armed rebels opened fire. Officer Khaidir died instantly," Sudarsono said.
It was also reported on Thursday that Suprin, a lawyer at the NGO Coalition in South Aceh, and two other people were gunned down as they were travelling by car, Maimul Fidar, a human rights activist, said.
Armed men also burnt buildings in Central Aceh around 3 p.m. on Thursday, leaving 17 houses gutted. No fatalities were reported.(byg/edt/50)