Military may ban foreign teams from monitoring polls in Aceh
Military may ban foreign teams from monitoring polls in Aceh
Tiarma Siboro and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Banda Aceh
Amid mounting criticism over restrictions on the press and
independent groups in the war-torn province of Nanggroe Aceh
Darussalam, the Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Monday that the
presence of foreign teams monitoring next year's elections in the
province was not necessarily needed.
Aceh Martial Law Administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya argued
that in accordance with the country's legal system, the
government had established bodies to deal with elections,
including the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the
Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), therefore "we should
believe in those bodies instead of relying on foreigners."
"Indonesia is a great country, so why don't we trust our
people to deal with our internal problems? We do not need foreign
monitoring teams in Aceh before, during and after the 2004
elections," Endang said, as quoted by Antara.
"I don't understand why the presence of foreigners to monitor
the elections in Aceh is considered to be an important issue,"
Endang said.
"What is good for foreigners is not necessarily good for us,"
he said.
The two-star general was answering a question on whether the
TNI would allow monitoring teams from neighboring countries to
visit the province ahead of elections to ensure that Acehnese
would be able to exercise their political rights properly.
KPU has scheduled the legislative election for April 5, 2004,
and has planned to organize a two-phase presidential election in
July and September respectively. A total of 24 political parties
have been declared eligible for the elections.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri decided in November to extend
martial law in Aceh for another six months, arguing that the
government was responsible for maintaining security and order in
the province before, during and after the elections.
Since the government imposed martial law in Aceh in mid-May to
crush the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), more than 40,000
TNI troops and policemen have been deployed to the oil and gas-
rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra.
Rights activists and political observers have criticized the
decision for fear that a massive deployment of government
soldiers would affect the democratic climate across the
territory.
Indeed, Aceh will be the first and only province in the
country's history to face a military offensive during the
democratic events in 2004.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has criticized the
imposition of martial law in Aceh, saying that under martial law,
the government and military had effectively barred nearly all
independent and impartial observers (including diplomats), as
well as international humanitarian aid workers, from the
province.
Meanwhile, the TNI announced on Monday that one soldier and
four suspected rebels were killed in several armed encounters
between government troops and GAM rebels across the province on
Sunday.
TNI Aceh operations spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said
that the four suspected rebels died in a gunfight on Sunday in
southern Aceh. Also on Sunday, guerrillas ambushed a group of
government troops in eastern Aceh and one soldier died in the
gunbattle.
Four other GAM rebels were also arrested over the weekend in
eastern Aceh, he said.
Meanwhile, a civilian who worked as a driver for journalists
was found dead on Saturday after going missing for several days.
His death remained a mystery, but a reporter in Banda Aceh who
saw his body believed that he had been shot in the head.
The rebels launched their independence bid in 1976 after
Jakarta refused to give increased autonomy to the province. About
10,000 people have died in the conflict and repeated efforts to
forge a peace deal have collapsed.