JSC called upon to stay out of Takengon

JSC called upon to stay out of Takengon

Tiarma Siboro and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto called
on the Joint Security Committee (JSC) tripartite monitoring team
to stay out of Takengon in Central Aceh until the situation
there, following the recent attack on the office of the JSC,
returned to normal.

He said that military personnel would do everything in their
power to restore the situation so that the JSC could resume their
mission in the regency.

Commenting on the attack, he said, "The attack was an
expression of the local people, who felt dissatisfied with the
JSC, which they consider to be unfair in the handling of local
people's complaints on legal violations. Therefore, I call on the
JSC to pull out its staff from the region and let my soldiers
restore the situation," said Endriartono at a press conference,
after a coordination meeting at the local office of Coordinating
Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono on Wednesday.

It was the first incident since the cessation of hostilities
agreement was signed on Dec. 9, 2002, in Geneva, Switzerland, in
which the JSC office was badly damaged, two cars torched, two JSC
members beaten and several others abducted for a period of six
hours.

People in Takengon ran amok because the JSC has yet to
investigate the recent kidnapping of a local businessman and to
stop the rampant extortion by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

GAM spokesman Tengku Sofjan Daud has accused the local
military-backed militiamen of being behind the attack.

Central Aceh was several regencies which have proposed the
formation of a new province to prevent the region from being
contracted by separatism.

Endriartono brushed aside the allegation and said, "I'm not so
smart as to create something that does not belong to myself as
the TNI chief."

Brig. Gen. Savzen Noerdin, an Indonesian representative in the
JSC, rejected GAM's accusation that armed civilian militiamen
were behind the incident. He said that, according to the results
of a preliminary investigation, the attack was launched by local
people who were disappointed with the JSC's bad performance.

Meanwhile, deputy spokesman of the Aceh task force Maj. Eddy
Fernandy of the navy asserted that there were no militiamen in
Takengon. Eddy, nevertheless, admitted that some people in
Takengon had homemade weapons to defend themselves against GAM.

"But they were already disarmed last May, and this group does
not support GAM," he said.

Commenting on the delayed action taken by security officers,
Eddy simply said, "We never thought that a mob could turn that
ugly."