TNI to send more troops to troubled Aceh

TNI to send more troops to troubled Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Military (TNI) is planning to
dispatch more troops to troubled Aceh.

Lt. Gen. Djamari Chaniago, chief of TNI general affairs,
claimed on Tuesday that the fresh troops were only part of a
routine shift.

"There are not many and it is part of a routine shift,"
Djamari told reporters, after attending the handover ceremony for
the position of defense minister from Mahfud MD to Matori Abdul
Djalil.

About 20,000 troops had been deployed in Aceh, including three
battalions of combat engineers and 771 troops trained at the
Batujajar training center run by the Army's Special Force Command
(Kopassus) in Bandung, West Java, Djamari was quoted by Antara as
saying.

Deputy chief of the Indonesian Navy Vice Adm. Fred S. Lonan
said that the Navy had also deployed five warships to Aceh waters
in a bid to help prevent weapons being smuggled from other
countries into Aceh.

This deployment was also part of a routine shift and did not
constitute a new policy. "We are deploying the warships from
Sabang, Belawan and Sibolga," Lonan said.

Commenting on Thursday's killing of 30 civilians in East Aceh,
deputy chief of the Army Lt. Gen. Kiki Syahnakri stated that it
had been carried out by a rowdy armed group. The case was
currently being investigated, he said, without giving details.

At least 30 people were shot dead by unknown gunmen at PT Bumi
Flora, an oil palm plantation company in Idi Rayeuk district,
some 80 kilometers south of the capital of East Aceh, Langsa.

I Wayan Karya, a spokesman from the Coordinating Ministry of
Political and Security Affairs, said on Tuesday that the
government would evaluate the effectiveness of Presidential
Instruction No. 4/2001 on the restoration of law and order in
Aceh.

"We will evaluate the instruction as six of the steps
determined in the instruction have not worked as effectively as
expected," Wayan said, after a coordinating meeting on political
and security affairs.

"This evaluation is needed because economic activities and
other services have to continue in line with the upholding of
security in the area," he said.

Present at the meeting, which was presided over by
Coordinating Minister of Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono, were Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayudha,
Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil, Communications and
Information Minister Syamsul Muarief, caretaker Attorney General
Soeparman, TNI Commander Adm. Widodo A.S., police Inspector
General Comr. Gen. Ahwil Luthan and Jakarta Police chief Insp.
Gen. Sofjan Yacoeb.

Wayan disclosed that the separatist activities had
increasingly been curbed, especially in major Free Aceh Movement
centers, including Pidie, Bireun, and North, East and South Aceh.

"About 20 percent of the five areas, which used to be
classified as black regions, have become gray areas," he said.

After the introduction of the presidential instruction in
April, violence in Aceh continued and culminated with the killing
of the above-mentioned 30 civilians.

Meanwhile, dozens of Aceh's public and religious figures left
the province on Tuesday for Jakarta from Sultan Iskandar Muda
Airport in Aceh Besar regency.

An official at Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) provincial
administration announced that the figures went to Jakarta on the
invitation of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is slated to
announce the law on NAD at Merdeka Palace on Wednesday.

"We were informed just in time to ask Aceh's public and
religious figures to fly immediately to Jakarta as there will be
a meeting with President Megawati at the presidential palace on
Aug. 15," said the official, who asked not to be named.

But only 22 of the registered 27 figures were able to fly on
Tuesday as the remaining five were unable to obtain seats on the
flight, Antara reported. (tso)