Acehnese fear new military operation

JAKARTA (JP): Tension rose in Aceh on Tuesday following the central government's decision to launch a limited military operation in the province as local councillors asserted that such an operation "will be counter-productive and will never resolve the Aceh problem."

"Based on previous experience, such an operation will result in more casualties, and civilians are likely to be the main victims," said Mustafa A. Glanggang, chairman of the Aceh legislative council's commission A for security affairs.

"It will only increase the people's hatred of the military and Jakarta," he said. "But if the central government is determined to go ahead, they will have to be very selective and cautious."

Most Acehnese are already apathetic and fatalistic, a local leader, who preferred to remain anonymous, said.

"In that they don't want to die in vain. That pushes the young ones here to become militant," he said.

Reports also said that civilian officials have started to pack up and leave the restive regencies of North Aceh and Pidie heading to the provincial capital Banda Aceh or Jakarta.

"Every time there is a policy that tends to lead to chaos, people will leave Aceh...," a journalist said.

The Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) slammed the government over its decision to launch the military operation, saying that it had learned nothing from past experiences, especially from the so-called Military Operation Zone (DOM).

"The government is still arrogant and doesn't consider what happens to the people in Aceh," said Faisal Saifuddin of SIRA's representative office in Jakarta.

Mass military deployment was to be seen in the province over the past few days following the closure of at least five giant industrial sites in North Aceh, including the ExxonMobil Oil Indonesia and PT Arun LNG plants.

Meanwhile, the provincial police said that they would comply with any decision made by the central government on Aceh, spokesman for the Cinta Meunasah II operation Adj. Sr. Comr. Harunantyo said.

Earlier in Jakarta, Minister of Defense Mahfud M.D. announced that the government would launch "limited security operations" against separatist rebels in Aceh.

Speaking to reporters after meeting President Abdurrahman Wahid at Merdeka Palace, Mahfud was quick to add that the operations "will only be limited" and that they would not be tantamount to the DOM, a harsh military regime imposed on Aceh up until August 1998 which led to widespread human rights abuses.

"I can guarantee that there will be no more DOM for Aceh. GAM is too small to be handled by imposing a DOM," Mahfud said.

His statement came one day after the cabinet officially slapped the "separatist" tag on the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) which has been fighting for a free Islamic state there since the mid-1970s.

"The government has already ruled that GAM is a separatist (movement) and in legal terms it is subversive," Mahfud said, adding that concrete measures to deal with the separatists in Aceh were being formulated.

Separately, Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that GAM had been classified as separatist based on the fact that the movement had three prominent elements characteristic of subversive organizations.

"First, they already have an organized structure complete with an armed wing. They also adhere to the concept of independence and have conducted armed actions," he told the media on Tuesday.

Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said that the military would immediately launch a limited operation to quell GAM's activities in the riot-torn province.

"We will send in several battalions to counter the military operation launched by the separatists immediately after we receive instructions from the Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs," he said without elaborating.

In Cilangkap, East Jakarta, TNI spokesman Rear Marshall Graito Usodo said that the TNI would not reveal the exact date on which the limited military operation in Aceh would commence.

"In actual fact, the TNI have long considered GAM as separatists. But as the government were still employing persuasive measures such as dialog and the political approach ... so we (the military) went along with that," Graito said.

Meanwhile, violence continued to rock the province.

In North Aceh, five women were shot and two of them eventually died during an incident in Mulieng Manyang village in Kuta Makmur district around 9 a.m. Tuesday.

In Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, guerrillas tossed a grenade at a gas station on Tuesday and set off a bomb on a bridge on the route connecting Banda Aceh to Medan. (edt/02/50/byg/rms)