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Aceh rebels accuse indonesia of attacks { January 3 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.brunei-online.com/bb/mon/jan3w10.htmhttp://www.brunei-online.com/bb/mon/jan3w10.htm
Tsunami-hit Aceh rebels accuse Indonesia of attacks
January 3, 2005
Monday
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia's military is using the recent earthquake and tsunami as an excuse to ratchet up its campaign against separatist rebels and is denying aid to anyone it suspects of sympathising with their cause, a spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement said Sunday.
Meanwhile, a prominent student group in Aceh urged authorities Sunday to lift a state of emergency in the region and abandon the military offensive against separatist rebels.
"The government of Indonesia has to end the military approach to resolve the conflict that creates the suffering of the Acehnese," said a statement by SIRA, a student group campaigning for an independence referendum in the province of 4 million people.
The Free Aceh Movement, or GAM - a rebel group fighting for independence since 1976 - announced a unilateral truce in its war with Indonesian forces because of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed 80,000 people in the province.
But government troops have continued anti-insurgency actions in Aceh, on Sumatra island's northern tip. Troops killed three rebels and detained five others in northern Aceh Saturday, accusing them of trying to attack a relief convoy, state-run news agency Antara said.
Bakhtiar Abdullah, a Sweden-based GAM spokesman, denied that rebels attacked any convoy.
He said the military had poured troops into the region since the disaster in an effort to wipe out the rebels. He also said rebel sympathisers in refugee camps were harassed and tortured.
"The reports we received is that they are moving in more troops under the guise of relief operations," Abdullah said.
"We know that they are trying to track down GAM fighters in the area," he said. "We have given strict orders to maintain a cease-fire and hope that the Indonesian military would respect that cease-fire and refrain from any military action."
A military spokesman, Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki, acknowledged that operations against the rebels were continuing and that more troops have been sent to Aceh. But he said the government had reassigned two-thirds of all the troops to disaster relief.
"We have to maintain security operations to prevent the rebels from attacking vital installations and relief operations," he said.
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, on a visit to Aceh on Saturday, said the disaster had killed more than 1,000 troops and police. Some were still missing, he said.
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