Military to safeguard elections in troubled Aceh

Military to safeguard elections in troubled Aceh

Tiarma Siboro and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Banda Aceh/Jakarta

The Aceh military has set up security arrangements to enable
local residents in areas known as rebel strongholds to exercise
their right to vote on April 5.

Commander of the North Aceh Military overseeing also
Lhokseumawe and Bireuen, Lt. Col. Entang Sulaiman, said on
Wednesday the military had classified the polling stations into
three categories: safe, danger level 1 and danger level 2. The
status determines the number of soldiers deployed to guard the
polling stations.

In a safe area, police and civilian guards will play the main
role in providing security around a polling station, with up to
five soldiers placed at a radius of up to one kilometer from a
polling station.

There will be between five and seven soldiers helping the
police at each polling station located in areas classified as
danger level 1, while in the danger level 2 areas the number of
soldiers will be increased to 15 for each polling station.

"The soldiers will be ready on site on April 1 (Thursday) or
four days before D-day," Entang said.

There will be around 3,500 soldiers involved in safeguarding
the election in North Aceh and Bireuen alone, while all over the
province the martial law administrator will deploy 21,000 troops.

Head of the North Aceh General Elections Commission (KPUD)
Nazaruddin Ibrahim said local residents would cast their vote at
2,293 polling stations across the regency, with 988 of them
located in areas considered as safe, 816 situated in the danger
level 1 and 744 in the danger level 2 areas.

North Aceh, along with East Aceh, is known as a stronghold of
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels.

The military launched a major offensive against the rebels in
May last year. The current military operation is aimed at
enabling the Aceh people to exercise their right to vote in the
legislative election on April 5 and the presidential election on
July 5.

The government had planned to change the martial law status to
a civil emergency status when the mandate for the military
operation expires on May 19 of this year.

Entang said, however, the security arrangement would be
different for villages considered GAM bases. He declined to
elaborate on the arrangements.

Interim coordinating minister for political and security
affairs Hari Sabarno said in Jakarta on Wednesday the election
would definitely be scrapped in 25 of the 52 villages known as
GAM strongholds across North Aceh and East Aceh.

"Of the 52 villages which fall under GAM control, we could
still hold the election in 27 of them but we need to take extra
measures to make it possible," Hari said at the State Palace.

He said it would be impossible to hold the election in the 25
villages because of GAM's presence.

"GAM has a strong presence in the villages and government
troops cannot enter those areas," the minister said.

He played down the consequence of the decision with regards
the legitimacy of the legislative election in the province.
"There are still hundreds of villages where people can exercise
their right to vote," he said.

Currently, there are no foreign monitors registered to observe
the election in the conflict-prone areas in North Aceh.

"They must secure a permit from the martial law
administration, the Aceh Police and the local district police
beforehand. They cannot go beyond municipalities," Entang said.