DATE=11/4/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=INDONESIA / ACEH (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-255801
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Indonesian military has announced it
will begin to withdraw troops from the troubled
northern province of Aceh this month. But as
Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta, the move may
not be enough to satisfy many Acehnese who want
an independence referendum to be held in the
province.
TEXT: Indonesia's Armed Forces spokesman says the
military will begin withdrawing troops from Aceh
in phases beginning this month. Major
General Sudrajat also said the province's new
deputy Armed Forces chief will be an Acehnese
officer, Lt. General Fahrui Razi.
The moves are the latest in a series of
conciliatory gestures made by Jakarta towards
Aceh in recent weeks. Indonesia's new president,
Abdurrahman Wahid has opened peace negotiations
with rebels from the Free Ache Movement. Mr.
Wahid also named a former human rights official
from Aceh to the cabinet position of State
Minister for Human Rights.
Mr. Wahid says ending the separatist unrest that
has plagued Aceh since the 1970's will be one of
the main priorities of his new government,
put in place after elections two weeks ago.
Tensions between separatist rebels and the
Indonesian Armed Forces began intensifying in
1989, when the military undertook a mission to
crush the separatist movement.
Since then human rights officials say at least
two thousand people have either been killed or
have simply disappeared. Analysts say the
military's tactics have actually strengthened the
resolve of the Acehnese in their push for
statehood.
In Aceh Thursday some 20-thousand protesters took
to the streets of the town of Sigli, to demand
the holding of an independence referendum.
Analysts say the government's willingness to hold
a referendum in the disputed territory of East
Timor -- which led to East Timor's winning
independence last month -- has encouraged the
Acehnese separatists.
The demonstration was the first since Monday when
soldiers shot into a crowd of protesters in the
Acehnese town of Meulaboh. At least 19 people
were injured in that incident. The demonstrators
were trying to burn down a police post and a
local assembly-building in reaction to comments
by President Wahid that it was too soon to
consider holding a referendum in Aceh.
A group of regional parliamentarians from Aceh
have also traveled to Jakarta to issue an
ultimatum - the government must agree to hold a
referendum within one month, or the Acehnese will
hold one themselves.
NEB/PN/FC
04-Nov-1999 05:24 AM EDT (04-Nov-1999 1024 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
