Acehnese fear new military operation

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)