BY JAMES BALOWSKI
JAKARTA — Indonesian government officials and high-ranking military officers have been hinting that, despite the military's (TNI) much-touted successes in its war against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the province of Aceh, the so-called "integrated operation" may be extended beyond its original six-month deadline. This was confirmed by TNI chief Endriartono Sutarto on September 3.
Sutarto said the TNI is considering extending military operations in Aceh to April, when legislative elections are scheduled. Sutarto said that successfully holding the elections in Aceh, at the same time as other parts of Indonesia, is one of the TNI's goals.
Launched on May 19, the operation — which is supposed to include a humanitarian component and the "empowerment" of the local administration — has been dominated by a vicious military campaign to crush GAM. There have been reports of widespread human rights abuses by the military.
Sutarto told the September 4 Jakarta daily Kompas: "To safeguard the momentum of the success of the integrated operation, whatever decision is taken by the government, as long as GAM is capable of disrupting security, the military operation in Aceh will be needed. Therefore, TNI troop numbers in Aceh will be maintained until conditions are considered to be safe for life to return to normal."
Sutarto admitted that the TNI was having difficulties defeating GAM because it has resorted to "a strategy of guerrilla war". "A guerrilla war cannot be finished in one or two months. Our experience in confronting Darul Islam [which fought an unsuccessful campaign to establish an Islamic state between 1948-62] was that it required several decades. In East Timor, that took 23 years... The United States in Vietnam [fought for] decades and fled in disarray. There has never been a guerrilla force which could be dealt with in just three or six months", he said.
Indonesia's coordinating minister for politics and security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, speaking after a cabinet meeting, also confirmed to the September 4 Kompas that TNI and police troop levels would not be reduced in the near future. Yudhoyono explained that the government had never set a target of six months for the operation.
Data released by the Aceh police operational command on September 4 revealed that so far at least 319 civilians have been killed during Jakarta's war in Aceh, with 108 disappeared and 117 others wounded. Although lower than the numbers cited by human rights organisations, the figures are far higher than previously admitted by the military. An August 28 report by a coalition of non-government organisations found that at least 100 women have been raped in a similar period.
From Green Left Weekly, September 17, 2003.
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