Turkish bread, flags hot items in Aceh

Turkish bread, flags hot items in Aceh

Chris Brummitt, Associated Press/Banda Aceh

Turkish bakers making fresh bread for residents of Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province are finding their loaves aren't the only hot item in town.

Anything emblazoned with the Turkish flag -- a white crescent and star on a red background -- is in high demand, too. The reason: it's a near look-alike of the banned symbol of the region's separatist rebels.

"Everyone here knows this is Aceh's flag," said one resident pointing to the Turkish flag on his hat, as he waited for bread outside the store in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

"We can wear this safely and the police can do nothing," said the man, who refused to give his name for fear of reprisal.

For nearly three decades, the Free Aceh Movement rebels have been fighting to win government concessions for a referendum on self-determination for Aceh. They have rejected Jakarta's offer of "special autonomy," a form of self-government.

Since fighting broke out between the two sides' forces in 1976, tens of thousands of people have died - at least 15,000 in the last decade alone.

Following the devastating Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami, government and rebel negotiators have restarted stalled peace talks that were broken off two years ago by the military. The two sides are due to meet again later this month in Finland's capital, Helsinki.

Gauging support for the rebellion in Aceh is tricky. Years of a brutal police and military crackdown against the separatists -- and their sympathizers -- has left many people in Aceh weary of the violence and wary of openly siding with the rebels.

But the Turkish flag's sudden popularity in Aceh suggests that many of the 4.1 million residents of this province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, still harbor a strong allegiance to the rebels.

Two black stripes with a white border running along the top and bottom of the rebel flag mark the only difference with Turkey's banner. But possessing a rebel flag can mean a treason charge and a long prison sentence. So far, government armed forces have done nothing to try to discourage the craze for Turkish paraphernalia.

Turkish delegation head Ismail Hakki Turunc is aware of the reaction to his country's flag but prefers to talk about his crew's relief work.

"Before this we didn't know anything about GAM," said Turunc, referring to the rebels by their Indonesian acronym.

He said the Turkish and rebel flags shouldn't be lumped together in the same way the Turkish flag shouldn't be compared to the British soccer club Manchester United's.

"The flag is also red, but that doesn't mean we have anything to do with Manchester United," he said.

The Turkish bakers are part of a delegation of more than two dozen volunteers, most of them Istanbul city workers. Six bakers and their three Indonesian trainees put in 17-hour days baking as many as 10,000 loaves in an oven imported from Turkey.

They have hung huge Turkish flags along the row of shops where their relief operations are based, and have won quick friends among many residents.

Freshly baked bread is something of an exotic food item in Indonesia, where rice and noodles are staples. The bakers add sugar to the bread to make them more palatable to Acehnese.

"This is rare up here. We are so isolated," said Ibrahim Ali, clutching two loaves to take home to his family. "I want to come again tomorrow."

Every day, about 200 Acehnese, many of them women and children, queue an hour before the bread is ready to be distributed at 5 p.m. The leftovers that aren't passed out are taken to scores of makeshift refugee camps that dot the city.

"As long as the people here eat it, it makes me feel good," said Kamil Kolabas, who is the deputy manager of a state-owned bakery in Istanbul. "We are giving them a new culture -- bread culture."

Outside the shop, some residents are hunting for flags, not bread.

Several men outside the bakery approached a reporter and asked for clothing with the Turkish flag, perhaps mistaking him for Turkish worker.

One boy smiled and pointed at the flag flying above the shop. "GAM! GAM!" he said.

GetAP 1.00 -- FEB 9, 2005 12:21:30