Word: jakarta
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...blustering generals and politicians apart, there's hardly a voice in Jakarta prophesying anything but a long and bloody campaign in Aceh. That's because all sides want?even need?the conflict to continue, observed a senior Western diplomat in the capital. Everyone, that is, except the benighted province's populace, some 12,000 of whom have died in the 27-year struggle between Indonesian soldiers and GAM guerrillas, who are seeking independence from Jakarta's rule...
...integrated campaign" purportedly includes humanitarian aid to those displaced by war, but the t.n.i. itself acknowledges food is running short, and the U.N.'s Children Fund warns that basic health services are collapsing. Military analyst Kusnanto Anggoro is unimpressed by Jakarta's avowed 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...
...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...
...Justice Ministry said that there are new charges against the suspects related to the 1994 atrocities, in which 800,000 Rwandans died. More than 100,000 suspects are in jail awaiting trial on genocide charges. NOT SAYING MUCH INDONESIA Negotiations between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Jakarta government got off to a shaky start when the separatists threatened to stall the meeting if their delegates - five men arrested for trying to leave the country without notifying authorities - were not released by police. The meetings, which are taking place in Tokyo, may be the last chance to salvage...
...Civilians have always done most of the dying in Aceh's conflict, which has claimed more than 10,000 lives since 1976. And they are likely to suffer a lot more, since the years have not diminished Jakarta's apparent conviction that the Aceh issue calls for a military solution, not a political one. Nor, after a five-month pause, have the rebels lost their taste for battle. Invited by Libyan-trained GAM commander Darwis Jeunib to a remote village in Biruen district in the north, I see a few dozen of some 1,000 soldiers he claims to lead...