Tension increases in Aceh as deadline looms
Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Jakarta
Tension has increased in Aceh with just one week remaining of a two-week deadline set by the government for separatists to lay down their arms.
Witnesses said fully armed Indonesia Military (TNI) soldiers were patrolling streets in the troubled regencies of East Aceh, Aceh Besar, North Aceh, South Aceh and Pidie on Saturday. Some of the troops rode in armored vehicles.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) also said they were on alert in anticipation of a military and police crackdown.
Armed clashes have increased in the past week, with three incidents on Saturday claiming the life of a civilian and a GAM member.
People in the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe were shocked by the shooting of a man in the middle of the busy town on Saturday morning.
The victim, Abdullah Puteh, a native of Blang Crum village, was shot in the head and chest by unidentified men as he sipped coffee with friends at a foodstall, just 200 meters from a police station.
The assassin fled on a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice.
The incident initially created something of a furor among locals and journalists as the victim has the same name as the governor of Aceh.
North Aceh Police chief Sr. Adj. Comr. Eko Daniyanto said they were investigating the murder of Abdullah, who was a member of Rencong Aceh, a non-governmental organization.
Earlier Saturday, a GAM member was gunned down during a clash with marines at Teupin Gajah village in South Aceh.
TNI spokesman Maj. Eddy Fernandi said dozens of GAM members attacked a military post later in the day in the regency.
Two battalions of 1,200 Army reinforcements arrived in Aceh on Saturday. They will add to the existing 26,000 soldiers, plus 14,000 police personnel in the province.
"Troops are all over the place and I heard in the villages they are using armored vehicles during their patrols. Tension is increasing here," a Lhokseumawe resident, who requested anonymity, told The Jakarta Post by phone from Jakarta.
He said that so far the situation remained calm, despite the shooting.
At the last minute, the government pulled out of peace talks with GAM, scheduled for April 25 in Geneva, to discuss implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed by the two sides on Dec. 9 last year, also in Switzerland. The cancellation followed GAM's request to delay the meeting by two days.
The government later gave GAM until May 12 to return to the negotiating table, on the conditions that it accept Aceh is a part of Indonesia and it lays down its arms.
Jakarta has warned of an all-out military offensive against the rebels if no compromise is reached within the deadline.
Pressure is mounting on the government, from within and outside Indonesia, to settle the issue peacefully.
On Saturday, Muhammadiyah Chairman Ahmad Syafii Maarif said that about 50 Acehnese leaders had asked for a meeting with President Megawati Soekarnoputri to halt the possibility of a war in Aceh.
GAM negotiator in Aceh Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba said on Saturday that the rebels were refusing to comply with the deadline, which ends next Friday.
"The government already launched a military offensive when the meeting was canceled, exchanges of fire happen every day .... So what's the difference?"
Sofyan said GAM would not talk about the meeting until the deadline passed.
He said GAM had also insisted on holding talks in Geneva.
David Gorman, coordinator of the Henry Dunant Centre (HDC), which is acting as peace broker, said it had been in regular contact with both sides regarding the place, date and agenda of the meeting.
"We will begin the discussion of the date next week," Gorman told the Post, refusing to comment on the government's Friday deadline.