Jakarta steps up Aceh offensive

BANDA ACEH (Indonesia) May 20. Indonesia's military dropped more paratroopers on Tuesday in Aceh in an assault against separatist guerrillas who defied demands to disarm, while officials in Washington and other capitals urged Jakarta to restart autonomy talks with the rebels.

Five rebels were killed and seven others captured on Monday during the first day of the assault, Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said on Tuesday. Indonesia has sent more than 1,000 elite troops to the north-western province, firing rockets and landing marines in what is expected to be Indonesia's biggest military operation since it invaded East Timor in 1975.

There were no immediate reports of fighting on Tuesday, but buildings — mostly schools — were set ablaze in northern Aceh. At least 20 schools were burned on Monday.

``Those captured rebels have revealed that (the rebel group) has a plan to burn down school buildings, especially those located around military posts, in order to discredit the military,'' Gen. Suwarya said.

Gen. Suwarya, the military chief in Aceh, said that a battalion of soldiers was being dropped close to southern town of Takengon, a known rebel stronghold. The United States, Japan, Australia and members of the European Union said that talks aimed at securing a deal for Aceh's regional autonomy did not go far enough.

From The Straits Times

Aceh ablaze
Rebels set fire to more than 180 schools, houses, power stations and govt offices

By Robert Go

JAKARTA - Aceh was ablaze yesterday, with over 180 buildings, including more than 100 schools, having been set on fire, apparently by rebels fending off the military advance into the province.

Indonesian officials accused the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist forces of resuming their strategy of burning schools, considered by the rebels as government indoctrination centres.

But the separatists, in turn, accused the military of resorting to arson as part of its psy-ops tactics against them.

The torching of schools came on the second day of a military offensive aimed at crushing the nearly three-decade-old rebellion.

One school that was razed was the one-storey Banda Aceh Public Elementary School on the outskirts of the provincial capital.

Dozens of other schools across the province were set afire on Monday night, along with government offices, houses and power stations.

Indonesian police chief Da'i Bachtiar said yesterday there were plans to send 2,000 more officers to Aceh over the next few days to protect public facilities.

An airborne battalion of about 600 soldiers was flown in yesterday to join about 30,000 troops and a 12,000-strong police force.

But GAM spat defiance in the face of the build-up and orders from Indonesia's top general for his troops to 'exterminate' the rebels.

Mr Isnandar Al-Pase, GAM's deputy military spokesman, told The Straits Times that Indonesia does not have enough resources to do the job and, instead, its operations will only convince the Acehnese that Jakarta is unfit to rule the region.

'The decision made by the Indonesian colonialist government will result in disaster for them. They will not win over the Acehnese by violence or by shedding Acehnese blood. This campaign will only add strength to GAM.'

General Endriartono Sutarto, chief of Indonesia's military, had earlier during the day told hundreds of soldiers in a fiery pep talk: 'Hunt them down and exterminate them. You are trained to kill. This is the end of the story. Finish them off.'

Top Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, however, spoke in more lenient tones and said Indonesia would give amnesty to GAM members who wanted to defect.

Despite skirmishes between the two forces, there is no sign yet of when the authorities would finally launch its first major strike against GAM.

Casualties have been limited so far for either side. By yesterday evening, Indonesia announced six dead rebels and seven captured. An Indonesian marine was killed when the amphibious transport he was on overturned.

The course of events over the last two days is proving what many observers have warned: The conflict's biggest victims would be the local Aceh population.

Yesterday, for example, villagers close to the northern town of Bireun found the corpse of a 60-year-old local councillor who local police said had been shot by the rebels, AP reported.

Reuters quoted GAM rebels as saying that 17 civilians had been killed in the offensive.

Donors to Indonesia have urged both sides to resume peace talks.

United States State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said: 'It is our judgment that the possible avenues to a peaceful resolution were not fully explored at the Tokyo conference. We call for the two parties to return to the negotiating process.'

President Megawati Sukarnoputri ordered the resumption of military action after peace talks in Tokyo collapsed at the weekend.

The separatist conflict in Aceh is believed to have claimed more than 10,000 lives since the mid-70s.

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