GAM's strength reduced: Endriartono
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto claimed on Friday that government troops deployed in war-ravaged Aceh had significantly sapped the strength of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the four-month-old operation.
The four-star general, however, admitted that soldiers were still finding it difficult to arrest or kill senior leaders of Aceh rebels, who have been fighting for independence for the resource-rich province since 1976.
"I can't deny that GAM still exists and we have encountered difficulty in arresting or killing leaders of the movement because they have established a tough protection system," Endriartono told a conference organized to brief the media on latest developments in the ongoing operation in Aceh.
The government launched on May 19 a joint operation aimed at eliminating GAM from the country's westernmost province.
Endriartono said, after four months of a relentless military offensive, GAM members had been pushed to remote forested areas, preventing them from causing security disturbances to civilians, including the collection of "Nanggroe taxes" from local people.
The military has claimed that it has killed almost 1,000 GAM rebels and arrested 1,000 others in the four-month-old operation. Those arrested are currently undergoing police questioning, most, if not all, not accompanied by lawyers, contrary to what is stipulated in the country's Criminal Code.
TNI predicted earlier that GAM had around 5,000 active members and over 2,000 weapons. Endriartono refused to speculate on the current number of GAM rebels.
"Maybe their numbers have been reduced because they have returned to their normal lives as villagers, or even increased because more civilians have sympathized with then and joined the movement ... I don't know," Endriartono said.
The military has confiscated only 363 weapons so far from the rebels.
The military has also lost 35 soldiers and six police personnel, with hundreds of others injured.
The military chief conceded that the operation had produced casualties among innocent civilians. Endriartono said so far at least 304 civilians had been killed and 140 others injured.
He also said the integrated operation would focus on humanitarian operations in the next two months and support efforts to strengthen local administrations there.
"While we continue hunting down GAM leaders, we (TNI) will focus on supporting other operations in Aceh so that the government can optimize efforts to revive local administrations in the province," Endriartono said.
"We believe that a military operation is not the only solution to the Aceh question," he said.
Besides crushing the separatist movement, the integrated operation is also aimed at enforcing the law, strengthening the civil administration and providing humanitarian assistance.
Asked whether the military would propose that the government extend martial law in Aceh, Endriartono said, "The President has the prerogative over whether or not martial law should be extended in Aceh; I'm not in a capacity to propose anything."
Nevertheless, he said that TNI would likely maintain the presence of some of its 35,000 soldiers in Aceh at least until after the 2004 general elections, to ensure that all Acehnese would be able to exercise their voting rights.
Indonesia is scheduled to hold the legislative election in April 2004 and a two-phase direct presidential election in July and September 2004.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a decree in mid-May imposing martial law for six months in Aceh to allow government troops to eliminate the GAM secessionist movement from the province.
More than 10,000 people, mostly innocent civilians, have died since 1976, when GAM officially began its fight for independence from Jakarta.