Military

DATE=05/18/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=INDONESIA / ACEH (L-O)

NUMBER=2-303347

BYLINE=STEVE HERMAN

DATELINE=TOKYO

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

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INTRO: Representatives of the Indonesian government and Aceh province rebels met for a second day in an attempt to salvage a peace pact during talks in Japan. Steve Herman reports from Tokyo on the tenuous efforts to avoid a new war.

TEXT: The Tokyo meeting almost ended before it began.

Five Aceh independence delegates were temporarily detained Friday, as they were about to head for Japan. They were released too late to make it to Tokyo, but the rebel delegation agreed to begin talks.

The two days since then have been described as tense. On the first day, negotiators from Indonesia's government and the rebels did not meet face-to-face, relaying their demands through a mediator.

Saturday, Indonesia gave the rebels 24 hours to agree to give up 60-percent of their weapons within a month, and immediately agree to accept special autonomy, not independence.

An aide to Indonesia's security minister said the talks are in "critical condition" because the Aceh rebels are refusing to accept the Indonesian government's terms to prevent a military response.

Indonesia appears determined to end independence bids for the province in far northern Sumatra.

It has boosted the number of soldiers and police there to more than 45-thousand in recent weeks. Aircraft and nearly two-dozen warships are also at the ready for what observers predict would be a major assault.

Aceh rebel official Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba says, if Indonesia goes to war, it will have to kill nearly three-quarters of Aceh's four-million people, because that is how many desire independence.

Thousands of Acehnese, mostly civilians, have died in recent years in fighting between the military and rebels of the Free Aceh Movement.

A peace deal signed in December raised hopes that the conflict would end, but that agreement has been plagued by alleged disarmament violations and clashing interpretations of autonomy.

The Tokyo talks were called in an effort to sort out these differences.

Fresh clashes were reported as negotiations proceeded. The Indonesian military says seven rebels were killed Saturday in a clash with troops over the hoisting of an independence movement flag. (SIGNED)

NEB/HK/SH/JO/RAE/TW