Mega still hoping for peace

Mega still hoping for peace

Agencies, Tokyo

President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Monday said she is still hoping for a negotiated settlement of the separatist war in Aceh province but will push ahead with a military campaign to maintain Indonesia's territorial integrity.

In a speech at the Japan National Press Club, Megawati emphasized her government's determination to oppose any challenges to the territorial unity of Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous nation.

"We are holding out hope for a peaceful resolution through dialog," she said, speaking through a Japanese interpreter. "But the Constitution makes clear that Indonesia is a unitary state, and it is unacceptable that any people should aim for an arrangement contrary to that."

Megawati imposed martial law in Aceh and ordered troops into action in the province after talks to salvage a five-month-old peace deal failed in Tokyo on May 18. The Indonesian government has offered autonomy to the province but accused the rebels of using the peace deal to rearm in pursuit of their separatist struggle.

Indonesia has sent 30,000 troops to the natural resource rich province to fight an estimate 5,000 Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels in what is expected to be Indonesia's biggest military deployment since the operation in East Timor in 1975.

Megawati said the military operation was supposed to last for five more months "but I hope it will end as soon as possible."

She argued it would be "ideal" to settle the Aceh conflict peacefully but called on the world to understand there were "limitations" to this approach.

Demands for the government to stop the offensive and return to negotiating table are quite unpopular at home, except persistent pressure from human rights groups who said the military operation was prone to unchecked human rights violations, undermining democracy and failing to protect civilians.

The National Police announced on Monday that 124 civilians had been killed, 67 injured and 61 others had gone missing since the imposition of martial law in Aceh.

Muhammadiyah chairman Ahmad Sjafii Maarif is one of a few antiwar protagonists from the religious community who has persistently called on the government to put an end to the war and reopen dialog with the separatists.

He warned the government against using national integrity as the pretext for the offensive on Aceh, saying it would only mean oppression for most of the people in the province.

The last military operation in Aceh between 1989 and 1998 is believed to have resulted in the deaths of over 10,000 civilians.

Megawati arrived in Tokyo on Sunday for a four-day visit that may include talks on a possible free-trade accord and Japanese help in curbing rampant illegal logging in Indonesia, officials said.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was expected to express his concern over the resumption of hostilities in Aceh and reiterate Japan's readiness to help play peacemaker when the two leaders meet Tuesday, according to media reports.

A group of international donors, including Japan, the United States and the European Union, were preparing a rehabilitation package for post-war Aceh.

Megawati said her government was pursuing a "comprehensive strategy" in Aceh that included economic projects "for the benefit of the people" as well as military operations.

They included programs to ensure that revenues generated by the province were used to promote local development, said Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, who was among Indonesian ministers visiting Tokyo with Megawati.

In Aceh, separatist rebels killed a local police chief and two civil servants, the military said.

In a separate incident, five Mobile Brigade paramilitary policemen were wounded when their truck went over a homemade bomb in Pidie district on Sunday, spokesman for the military operation Lt. Col. Achmad Yani Basuki added.

He said Darisman, chief of police in North Aceh's Blang Mangat subdistrict, was shot dead Monday by two GAM members as he rode a motorcycle. The rebels stole his handgun after the shooting.