Police to maintain personnel in Aceh: Sutanto says
Police to maintain personnel in Aceh: Sutanto says
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
National Police Chief Gen. Sutanto said that police would
maintain their personnel in Aceh, arguing that they play a
crucial role in ensuring public order.
"The presence of police personnel is still required in Aceh.
We are not going to withdraw our personnel from there," Sutanto
told reporters after holding a coordinating meeting on political,
legal and security affairs on Tuesday.
"Of course, a withdrawal of police reinforcements in Aceh will
be conducted," Sutanto added.
Sutanto, however, refused to reveal how many police personnel
would be stationed in the province. Some reports said that the
number could be as high as 9,000.
The issue of security arrangements is one of the key points
agreed during last week's peace talks between the government and
the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Helsinki, under which the
secessionist movement is required to decommission their weaponry
in parallel with the withdrawal of police and military
reinforcement personnel. The peace deal is expected to be
officially signed in mid-August.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has set a three-month
deadline for the process to be completed.
The whole peace process will be monitored by a team from the
European Union and five ASEAN nations including Malaysia,
Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines.
In responding to the peace deal, Indonesian Military (TNI)
chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has said that he has agreed to
withdraw reinforcement troops.
Sources said the military will maintain 20,000 soldiers
considered as 'organic' troops -- troops whose home base is Aceh
-- who will be stationed at the Iskandar Muda Military Command.
The TNI deployed about 38,000 non-organic reinforcement troops
to the province last year as the government geared up for a war
against GAM. About 14,000 police personnel are also deployed
there.
The huge number of reinforcement troops was aimed at crushing
the 8,000-strong GAM army, who are believed to have some 8,000
weapons including SS-1, AK-47 and AK-54 rifles.
After two years of an intensive campaign to crush the decades-
long insurgency in Aceh, Endriartono says that at least 3,300 GAM
fighters had been killed.
The military's official data claims GAM's strength to be
between 1,200 and 1,500 people, with 500 firearms.
GAM has waged a guerrilla war since 1976, accusing Jakarta of
exploiting the impoverished province's natural resources. More
than 15,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed during the
conflict.
The exiled GAM leadership has been pushing for the government
to reciprocate a cease-fire offer at the current peace talks,
which were revived following last year's tsunami disaster that
claimed at least 128,000 lives in Aceh alone.