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Associated Press


Associated Press, Monday March 3, 2003 11:44 PM ET

Rebels blame army for attack on Aceh peace monitors

By MUHARRAM M. NUR, Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Separatist rebels on Tuesday accused the Indonesian military of trying to derail the peace process in Aceh province by inciting a militia attack on international monitors overseeing the accord.

The military, which has in the past used militia groups against insurgents in Aceh, East Timor, the Maluku islands and Papua province, denied the allegations.

On Monday, a mob of mostly non-Acehnese villagers torched three vehicles and ransacked an office in central Aceh belonging to the Henri Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue. The center brokered the Dec. 9 peace deal between the government and separatist rebels. Two Indonesians working for the organization were slightly injured.

The military claimed the villagers became violent after the monitors allegedly failed to act on their complaints accusing the rebels of extortion.

"This incident was the work of militias trained by the Indonesian military," rebel spokesman Sofyan Dawood said. "Their aim is to expel international monitors from central Aceh so no one can see what the military is doing."

Insurgents began fighting in 1976 for an independent state in oil-and-gas rich Aceh, 1,800 kilometers (1,100 miles) northwest of Jakarta. About 12,000 people have died in the past decade.

The peace deal has resulted in a sharp drop in violence. But several key issues, including rebel disarmament, have yet to be resolved.

About 50 international monitors are based in Aceh, most of them from Thailand and the Philippines. Monday's incident was the first time they have been threatened.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus Komarno denied any military involvement in Monday's attack.

"The rebels can accuse all they want," he said. "We had nothing to do with it. It was a spontaneous and genuine reaction to extortion by the rebels," he said.

Extortion and banditry by both rebel and military soldiers is rife in Aceh despite the peace deal. Commanders unwilling to give up the lucrative opportunities provided by continued conflict are one of the main threats to the peace process.

The Geneva-based Henri Dunant Center declined to comment on the rebels' allegations, but said it had no plans to pull its monitors out of central Aceh as a result of the attack.

The Indonesian army has a long history of using proxies — such as militia groups or rioters — against international organizations and human rights groups.

Several U.N. workers were injured or killed during the bloodshed that followed the 1999 independence referendum that ended Indonesian rule in East Timor.

In September 2000, a pro-Indonesian mob attacked a U.N. office in the town of Atambua on Indonesian-held West Timor, killing three foreign staffers, including a U.S. aid worker. It was the deadliest attack on civilian U.N. staff in the organization's history.

Copyright © 2003 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
 


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