TNI to send hundreds more spies to Aceh

TNI to send hundreds more spies to Aceh

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After claiming to have successfully cracked down on the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM), the military is now planning to intensify
intelligence operations against rebels in the troubled province.

Aceh Military Commander Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said here on
Tuesday the Indonesian Military (TNI) was preparing to send 500
new intelligence officers to the province, where GAM rebels have
been fighting for independence since 1976.

Endang, who said that there were already some 250 intelligence
officers deployed in Aceh, did not say when the new officers
would be sent.

More officers was needed to track down the few Aceh rebels who
were left, who had eluded military operations because of their
small numbers, he said.

"In the one-month extension of the state of civil emergency
(in Aceh), the number of GAM members has significantly decreased,
with no less than 311 rebels surrendering to the government.

"The falling numbers of GAM rebels, however, should not lead
people to think security problems in Aceh have returned to
normal. A more intensified operation is still needed, with a new
strategy that emphasizes intelligence operations," Endang said
after attending a meeting on security affairs here on Tuesday.

Endang said the TNI's chief of general affairs Vice Air
Marshal Wartoyo had agreed to the proposal.

After the government declared a major offensive against GAM in
mid-May last year, the TNI deployed about 40,000 troops in the
province aiming to crush about 8,000 guerrillas equipped with
about 2,000 weapons.

After large-scale operations, the TNI claimed the number of
GAM members had dropped to about 2,200 rebels equipped with 800
weapons.

Asked to comment on the TNI plan, a GAM official said Tuesday
the move "would only kill more innocent civilians, instead of
quelling the secessionist movement."

Rights activists have long criticized the performance of
Indonesian intelligence agencies and highlighted various rights
abuses, including psychological torture, rape and extra judicial
killings that have gone on since the government imposed military
rule and later a state of civil emergency in the area.

More than 660 Acehnese civilians have been killed since May
last year, they say.

In the Tuesday meeting, the government also discussed the
humanitarian assistance and economic recovery packages for the
province that were funded from this year's budget for Aceh
operations.

State Minister of Information and Telecommunications Sofyan
Djalil said the money should be used to fund projects badly
needed by the Acehnese before fresh funds were disbursed to the
province next year.

Lawmakers have so far allocated Rp 2.5 trillion (US$277.8
million) for Aceh operations since May last year -- an initial
1.2 trillion when martial law was declared and another Rp 1.3
trillion when the government decided to extend the state of civil
emergency for another six months in November.

Critics said the extension of the state of civil emergency
closed the way for efforts to settle the problems in the troubled
province, particularly its economy which had collapsed following
the imposition of martial law. They said the state of civil
emergency would also deny the public access to probe into high-
profile corruption cases allegedly involving local political
leaders.