Postal service halted in war-torn Aceh
Yuli Trisuwarni and Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Bandung/Lhokseumawe
National postal service PT Pos Indonesia indefinitely suspended its operation across Aceh starting Monday due to security concerns.
Spokesman of Pos Indonesia Arief Setyanto told reporters employees had found it difficult to make postal deliveries to the war-torn province since the government imposed martial law.
"As we have learned, the security condition in Aceh is no longer favorable and most of the land transportation routes we use have been paralyzed. We cannot conduct our duty as usual (under such conditions)," Arief said.
All postal services have been halted, except for ordinary letter deliveries, and the suspension will affect the delivery of parcels and packages, postal money orders and transfers and express mail services.
Arief said parcel deliveries had been stopped due to the high risk that parcels may go missing or fail to reach recipients.
He said the postal company was basing its decision on the 1974 Lausanne Resolution No. C-37 on postal services during war, which requires postal companies to continue services unless the UN Security Council or General Assembly bans postal services to a war zone.
It is not known whether either UN body has placed such a ban on postal services to Aceh.
"We have employees whose safety must be ensured, now that the situation in Aceh is getting worse and hindering our jobs," Arief said.
Pos Indonesia will suspend its activities until government troops thoroughly restore order, before resuming full services.
Entering the third week of its operation in Aceh, the Indonesian Military (TNI) claimed on Monday to have taken control of more Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist strongholds.
Commander of the military operation in Aceh, Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono, attributed the success in part to the Acehnese people, whom he said had provided information about the presence of GAM camps.
"I can say now that people in Aceh have become more cooperative with us as some of them now have the courage to support us by providing information regarding the presence of camps belonging to GAM rebels.
"Some of the rebels have also fled to the forests and started eating plants in the forests because people no longer supply them with food as happened before we launched the operation here," Bambang said.
He added that in some places, the military have managed to separate rebels from civilians, despite the separatists' efforts to blend with local residents and conceal their weapons.
Since the imposition of martial law on May 19, the government has deployed over 40,000 military and police personnel in an operation to crush the separatist rebels, who have fought for independence since 1976. There are an estimated 5,000 guerrilla fighters, with only half of them armed.
Bambang refused to disclose the GAM strongholds the military had seized in detail, saying it would jeopardize the interests of military operation. But he said some of the GAM bases were located in North Aceh, West Aceh, Central Aceh, Aceh Besar, Aceh Tamiang, Seledon and Serui.
He further said that even though GAM rebels continued their sporadic attacks by setting fire to public transportation vehicles and buildings, the number of attacks was no longer significant compared to the first days of the operation.
As of Monday, the military had sized 38 weapons belonging to the rebels, including rifles and hand guns.