Gunfire breaks TNI-GAM truce

Gunfire breaks TNI-GAM truce

Agencies, Banda Aceh/Lhok Nga

"There was just an exchange of fire down there," a local resident
said on Thursday, indicating a beach in Lhok Nga, just outside
Banda Aceh.

Lhok Nga was known as a beachfront recreation area before the
tsunami came.

The clash on Thursday morning happened just off the coast that
used to be the site of a housing compound for military engineers
and infantry. It has now been reduced to scattered bricks and
rubble.

"There was contact between the TNI and rebels," said a soldier
of the Army's Special Forces, or Kopassus, referring to the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The soldier, who was speaking aboard an Indonesian Military
(TNI) speedboat that had been spotted earlier racing along the
shoreline, said the rebels got away.

Meanwhile, the barefoot commander of the Kopassus team, his
shirt untucked, refused to discuss the incident.

A military spokesman admitted last Friday that despite the
disaster, the TNI offensive against the separatists was
continuing. He added that it may be scaled down, as troops were
devoting a large portion of their time to relief efforts.

The day after the Dec. 26 disaster, military chief Gen.
Endriartono Sutarto called for a temporary cease-fire to support
aid efforts. The following day, the GAM leadership said from
Sweden -- where they reside in self-exile -- that it had imposed
its own unilateral cease-fire.

"They're not brave enough to bother us in the daytime," said a
soldier stationed in front of the badly-damaged Semen Andalas
cement plant, about one kilometer down the beachfront road.
"They're trying to provoke us." He also reported that gunfire
came from the hills at night.

During the day, local residents use the beachfront road to
travel between the capital and their villages, about a two-day
walk.

"You won't give that to GAM will you?" a soldier inquired as
he inspected the belongings of a man who was offering the
pedestrians water and medical aid from in front of a tent.

The TNI claims that GAM may have acquired uniforms and weapons
from the destroyed base nearby. "The weapons disappeared and
people say GAM took them," one soldier said.

However, it is equally likely that the munitions were swept
away by the unimaginable wall of water that knocked down many
shoreline trees.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has called on
governments and rebels in Aceh, Sri Lanka and Somalia to keep the
peace or risk losing US$3.7 billion in aid.

"We need that cease-fire, that peace to hold, because if a new
conflict breaks out, we cannot help the people," he said on
Wednesday.

Despite the reported skirmish, aid continued to flow in to
Banda Aceh airport.

"As far as I know, there haven't been any delays," said
Michael Elmquist, who heads the UN operation in Aceh.