Word: gams
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...hard to fathom how executing schoolboys fits in with the t.n.i.'s overall campaign strategy in Aceh. When asked if it was okay for his soldiers to kill children suspected of being GAM members, army chief Ryamizard Ryacudu told TIME: "If they are armed and fire, they will be shot." (The villagers said the victims were not GAM members and were not armed.) The unsparing use of overwhelming force is only part of it. The military has also acknowledged its aim to separate GAM from its civilian supporters by herding up to 200,000 villagers into internment camps, a strategy...
...ensure the safety and well-being of civilians," foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told reporters. I spoke to villagers outside Lhokseumawe who were convinced they would soon be moved to a camp next to the nearest military base, where they feared they would be used as human shields against GAM attacks or brutalized by Indonesian troops...
...attempt to win Acehnese hearts and minds. "I don't think (the military) has any new strategy at all," he says. "They always go back to force, force and more force." So what will the t.n.i. regard as proof that it has secured victory in Aceh? The extermination of GAM? Not at all, insists General Sudi. If GAM rebels accept that Aceh is a part of Indonesia, then "we won't kill them all," he says. And if victory isn't secured before martial law expires six months from now? Then, says Sudi, "we'll just renew it"?as many...
...Sadly for the Acehnese, GAM's principal strategy will probably be to goad the military into committing the kind of brutal excesses it perpetrated in East Timor. "They know that they can't win, so they will keep trying to embarrass Jakarta and the army," says Neta Pane, author of the 2001 book GAM: Its History and Strength. He adds: "I was told by a top GAM official that they were going to use Viet Cong tactics, taking off their uniforms and mixing with the ordinary village people. And, of course, that feeds into the army's suspicions?they...
...campaign began. At the outset, television viewers saw some dramatic footage from Indonesian reporters embedded with the t.n.i. showing both sides of the conflict. But two days into the campaign, Aceh's military commander Major General Endang Suwarya flatly told the embeds that they were barred from using GAM statements. "I want all news published to uphold the spirit of nationalism," he said. "Put the interests of the unitary state of Indonesia first...