Emergency status mulled for Aceh

Emergency status mulled for Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): The government is considering adopting a civil
emergency status to address the long-standing violence in Aceh,
Coordinating Minister for Politics, Social and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday.

Speaking after a meeting with Vice President Megawati
Soekarnoputri, Susilo said the emergency status would serve as a
warning to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels who the
government has blamed for perpetrating violence despite the truce
arrangement under the humanitarian pause, which is in effect
until mid-January next year.

"If the alternatives proposed are rejected, the government
will adopt legal measures and deem it necessary to impose an
emergency status, although it's not an ideal thing to do,"
Yudhoyono said.

However, he said the government was still optimistic that it
could end the fighting through negotiations.

"A state of emergency is a last resort, which we hope will not
have to be taken," said Yudhoyono, a retired army general.

Since the truce came into effect in June, more than 240 people
have been killed in restive Aceh.

Based on Law No. 23/1959, which remains in effect as the newer
law passed by the House of Representatives in 1998 has not been
ratified yet, the civil emergency status would be declared
through a presidential decree.

The government of Abdurrahman Wahid imposed an emergency
status in Maluku and North Maluku in late June to address months
of sectarian conflict there.

Abdurrahman has repeatedly pledged to keep the country's
unity.

A coordination forum of ministers under Susilo's auspices
suggested on Tuesday that the government should get tough against
separatist movements in the natural resource-rich provinces of
Aceh and Irian Jaya.

Among the attendees at Tuesday night's meeting were Minister
of Defense Muhammad Mahfud MD, Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi
Shihab, Minister of Home Affairs and Regional Autonomy Surjadi
Sudirdja, Indonesian Military chief Adm. Widodo AS, Attorney
General Marzuki Darusman and Chief of State Intelligence
Coordinating Board (Bakin) Arie J. Kumaat.

The meeting also assigned Widodo, accompanied by Air Force
Chief of Staff Marshal Hanafie Asnan, to visit Aceh on Thursday.

Yudhoyono gave no details of the consequences of a declaration
of emergency. However, under past states of emergency in Aceh,
security forces have been given extra power to search for and
arrest suspects and impose curfews.

Rebels belonging to the Free Aceh Movement have been fighting
for independence in their oil and gas-rich homeland for about 25
years, leaving at least 5,500 people dead in the past decade.

Susilo also warned the popular Aceh proindependence group, the
Information Center for an Aceh Referendum (SIRA), about
mobilizing people against the government.

SIRA earlier this month mobilized hundreds of thousands of
people during a two-day rally organized to demand a referendum on
self-determination for the strongly Muslim region on the northern
tip of Sumatra.

They marked the anniversary of last year's first public call
for a vote on self-rule, which was attended by almost a million
people.

Susilo reiterated on Wednesday his warning to separatist
leaders in the easternmost province of Irian Jaya that a
declaration of independence, which is expected to highlight the
celebration of the 39th anniversary of their declaration of
independence on Dec. 1, would be treason.

He said he had heard reports that Free Papua (OPM) separatists
planned to celebrate the commemoration.

"If that takes place, it will be considered an act of treason
and the government will take stern action in line with the
Constitution," he said.

Independence sentiments were nurtured for similar reasons in
Irian Jaya but only surfaced strongly following the end of the
rule of former president Soeharto in 1998.

Separatists there claim that Irian Jaya declared independence
on Dec. 1, 1961 before the former Dutch colony became a part of
Indonesia under a UN-sanctioned act of free choice in 1969 that
Irianese say was flawed.

At a congress held by the proindependence Papua Council in
June, the delegates called on Jakarta to recognize the 1961
declaration.

The separatist movements in Indonesia have gained momentum
following East Timor's split from Indonesia last year.