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Army still at war in Aceh, The Australian, 05/01/05
INDONESIA: Military Offensive on in Tsunami-Hit Aceh - Critics, Inter Press Service, 03/01/05

The Australian, January 05, 2005
Army still at war in Aceh
By Sian Powell in Jakarta

The Indonesian military is continuing to wage war with separatist rebels in the hills of Aceh as world leaders put the finishing touches to a multi-billion-dollar aid and investment package for the devastated province. As international military and medical teams stepped up relief efforts yesterday in Aceh, where the tsunami killed up to 100,000 people, an Indonesian military spokesman confirmed that only two-thirds of the military's 40,000-strong force in the province was taking part in the relief effort while the remaining third was engaged in military operations against insurgents.

The rebels claimed yesterday that the Indonesian military has moved more troops into rebel-held territory under the guise of relief operations since the tsunami struck 10 days ago. They say squads of soldiers are preventing hill villagers going to help their relatives on the coast.

"They are still conducting an incessant military operation," a rebel spokesman, Teuku Jamaika, told The Australian from his base somewhere in
the Aceh hills. "There's no difference between before and after the tsunami."

Thousands of Australian and US military personnel are at the forefront of the relief operation on the coast of Aceh, with the support of medical and military teams from as far away as Germany and Japan.

The Indonesian embassy in Canberra last night defended the continued military operation against the rebels.

"The Indonesian military in Aceh also has a responsibility to maintain security," a spokesman said.

"The main task of the military is to provide humanitarian aid but they are also meant to provide security."

Colonel Djazairi Nachrowi, the head of information analysis at the national military headquarters, said there had been no ceasefire, despite an offer from rebel leaders exiled in Sweden to suspend hostilities until Aceh had recovered.

"At first we thought positively, that GAM (the Free Aceh Movement) had a conscience, and would not use the situation like this, but it turned out they held up (aid transport)," Colonel Nachrowi said.

"We are not offensive, we are defensive."

There had been no outright attacks on the rebels, he said.

"Some TNI (Indonesian military) troops tried to escort a truck filled with aid," he said.

"When they were on their way there was an indication they would be held up, so there was an exchange of fire. It's not TNI attacking GAM, but an exchange of fire because humanitarian aid was held up."

GAM spokesman Teuku Jamaika said military raids had continued in hill areas of Idi Rayek, in Bireuen, Gandapura and Pasongan. Local people had been prevented from leaving their villages to find relatives or simply to help, he said.

"It was prohibited, blocked. If they left their villages there were threats."

University of Indonesia military specialist Salim Said said GAM rebels would try to attack aid convoys to boost their supplies while the Indonesian military continued its crackdown.

"The operation to obliterate GAM continues, nothing has changed there," Dr Said said.

"Now another danger has threatened them, but they will still try to crush GAM."

Kirsten Schulze, a senior lecturer at the London School of Economics and the author of a number of papers on the Aceh insurgency, said counter-insurgency operations were continuing in the province, but she said it should be remembered the military was doing most of the dirty work in hard-hit towns such as Banda Aceh.

"In Meulaboh, there are no military operations," she said. "In East Aceh, which was not hit hard by the tsunami, yes, there are security operations going on."

Dr Schulze, in Indonesia to continue her research, said more troops had been sent into Aceh from North Sumatra, but only to bolster the relief effort.

"Without the military, the aid effort would be even slower."

Bakhtiar Abdullah, a GAM spokesman based in Sweden, said the military had poured troops into the region since the disaster. "The reports we received is that they are moving in more troops under the guise of relief operations," he said.

The 19-month crackdown on the GAM rebels has become a tender issue for Indonesia. The failure of an internationally-brokered and short-lived
ceasefire in 2003 prompted the massive military offensive, and Indonesia has reacted angrily to foreign criticism of various atrocities.

Before the tsunami hit, international aid workers were almost entirely prevented from operating in Aceh, journalists curtailed to an extent which
made balanced coverage impossible, and diplomats largely barred from visiting.

Teuku Jamaika said two rebels were shot dead by Indonesian soldiers late last week after an all-out attack, and flatly denied the rebels had attempted to hold up an aid convoy.

"We actually already unilaterally asked the TNI for a ceasefire," he said.

"We asked TNI to take a defensive position and only attack if we attack first. But it just doesn't work."


Inter Press Service, January 3, 2004 INDONESIA: Military Offensive on in Tsunami-Hit Aceh - Critics Sonny Inbaraj BANGKOK, Jan 3 (IPS) - While volunteers, relief workers and families are busy collecting and searching for bodies in Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Aceh province, Indonesian soldiers are continuing their offensive against separatist rebels, critics say. This, say international human rights groups, is hindering the delivery of badly needed humanitarian aid to survivors of the world's worst natural disaster in 40 years. The groups are also urging the Indonesian government not to let politics override the emergency needs of the Acehnese people. Although some reports say that a de facto ceasefire has been in place between the military and separatist rebels since the Dec. 26 disaster, there are no signs yet that the state of civil emergency, which was imposed on the province in 2004 to quell the separatist movement, will be lifted. ''Delays by the Indonesian government in allowing international access to Aceh may have needlessly cost precious lives. International and Indonesian organisations must have unrestricted access to Aceh,'' said the U.S.-based Non-Violence International in a statement. As many as 100,000 people may have been killed in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and elsewhere in North Sumatra as a result of the earthquake and tsunami that struck the region. The Indonesian government initially kept the international community at bay as it apparently debated whether to open Aceh up to foreigners. Aceh has been almost entirely closed to any international presence due to military operations there against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence since 1976. More than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since then. The government put the province under martial law on May 19, 2003 before reducing this to a state of civil emergency one year later. ''Under the civil emergency, the Indonesian military continue to play a leading role and there has been no cutback in the level of military operations in most of the territory,'' said Paul Barber of the Britain-based human rights group Tapol. ''Lifting the civil emergency would require the declaration of a presidential decree but Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has shown no inclination to move in this direction,'' he added. On Sunday Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, told reporters that relief efforts after the Asian tsunami disaster was falling behind in Indonesia. ''We're able to reach out in all of the affected countries except in (Indonesia's) Sumatra and Aceh at the moment. That is where we are behind,'' he said. All eyes are on whether the government can or will make use of the opportunity for reconciliation provided by the Dec. 26 disaster to open up Aceh to Indonesians and outsiders, and how its relief efforts continue will play a key factor in this. Many also concede that the military is the institution with the best reach and logistics to help out in times of disaster. At the same time, news reports from Jakarta said hundreds of Indonesian military troops, known by their Indonesian acronym TNI, were raiding GAM hideouts across East and North Aceh, which had been devastated by the tsunami. Also, 15,000 extra troops are being rushed to Aceh, on top of the 40,000 already there, to help with humanitarian activities. Lt Col D J Nachrowi told 'The Jakarta Post' on Thursday that the calamity should not be seen as a way for the military to suspend security operations against GAM. ''We are now carrying out two duties: humanitarian work and the security operation,'' he told the daily. ''The raids to quell the secessionist movement in Aceh will continue unless the president issues a decree to lift the civil emergency and assign us to merely play a humanitarian role in Aceh.'' Nachrowi's comments infuriated Nasruddin Abubakar, the president of Sentral Informasi Referendum Aceh (SIRA). ''The government is still maintaining the civil emergency and continuing on with military operations in Aceh despite the fact that the death toll now is close to 100,000. Is the government not yet satisfied with the killing?'' he asked in a phone interview with IPS. ''Are Acehnese not citizens of Indonesia?'' Nasruddin said his group had received news from volunteers working in the province's devastated capital Banda Aceh that the military was interrogating survivors making their way to relief centres, suspecting them of being GAM members. ''We want to draw everyone's attention to the need to save the Acehnese from death,'' he pleaded. The New York-based East Timor Action Network (ETAN) urged aid organisations and agencies to work as closely as possible with local civil society groups and to resist Indonesian government and military attempts to keep non-governmental local groups out of the process. ''The high level of corruption in Indonesia, especially in Aceh, and the great distrust of Aceh's (provincial) government make it crucial that aid groups be allowed to distribute urgently needed food, medical supplies, and other assistance outside of government channels, distributing aid directly and through local NGOs,'' said ETAN's Karen Orenstein. Tapol's Barber warned that natural disaster such as that which struck Aceh a week ago will only serve to reinforce the military's role under the cover of becoming involved in humanitarian activities. ''Following the imposition of martial law in May 2003, local NGOs fled from Aceh because of intimidation and the threat of violence against their activists,'' said Barber. ''Even now, Acehnese activists based in Jakarta and neighbouring Malaysia know that they would be taking great risks if they return to their homeland to help provide succour for the stricken population,'' he added. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence, a security analysis website, the tsunami disaster could prove to be a boon to Jakarta in its campaign against GAM. ''(President) Yudhoyono will send more troops into the province to rebuild and clean up...If GAM does not agree to settle the problem peacefully, Yudhoyono will have more troops on hand to clean them out,'' wrote the analysts at Stratfor. (END/2005)

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