The Sydney Morning Herald, January 19, 2005
Militia leader denies targeting Aceh rebels
By Philip Cornford, Herald Correspondent, in Banda Aceh, Cynthia Banham and
agencies
The infamous former pro-Indonesian militia commander in East Timor, Eurico
Guterres, yesterday denied he had visited Banda Aceh to organise a militia to fight
against rebels from the Free Aceh Movement, known as GAM.
The Daily Telegraph in London reported that associates of the former commander had
confirmed that Guterres visited Aceh last week and that 900 members of his
army-backed militia had assembled in Aceh province.
But Guterres told the Herald from Jakarta that he was confined to the capital while he
appeals against a 10-year jail sentence.
"I have never been to Aceh," said Guterres, who was convicted of war crimes by an
Indonesian court in 2002.
"I would be happy to go to Aceh to help the rehabilitation effort, but not to fight," he
said. "But that would require organisation which is beyond my resources."
The British daily quoted Eddy Juliansyah, a native of Aceh who runs the militia's Aceh
headquarters, as saying that it had 900 members ready to defend "Indonesian unity".
Since the tsunami devastated the province, dozens of militia members have arrived
from all over Indonesia, Mr Juliansyah said. He claimed they were in Aceh to provide
assistance for the refugees and to help remove the thousands of bodies.
But instead of reporting to a local military commander, they report to General Adam
Damiri, a former military chief in East Timor, the Telegraph said.
One man described being kidnapped at gunpoint by a squad of soldiers and marched
into the jungle where he was told to identify rebels.
A spokesman for the Indonesian military denied any knowledge of former East
Timorese militia units in Aceh or of any visit by Guterres.
"Many volunteers have come to Banda Aceh from all over Indonesia, but to help in the
tsunami tragedy. We do not know of any militia units," Colonel Yani told the Herald.
He would not confirm that General Damiri was in Banda Aceh. "Many retired generals
have come here to help," he said.
Indonesian police are interrogating two GAM suspects who were captured on Monday
by an army patrol in a village 28 kilometres south-east of Banda Aceh.
A self-imposed 24-hour ban on United Nations aid workers travelling from Banda Aceh
to the Sumatran capital, Medan, was lifted yesterday.
The head of UN relief operations in the province, Joel Boutroue, said the ban had been
imposed because of fears of attacks on aid convoys travelling along the road. "The
rumours were about possible attacks on relief workers. It was really nothing, and I
repeat, nothing specific," Mr Boutroue said.
Meanwhile, the UN and the Australian Government have not reacted to a Danish
Foreign Ministry alert that said Danes should avoid Aceh for fear of an imminent
terrorist attack.
A spokesman for the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said the Government did
not comment on "what other countries do", although he referred to a Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade travel advisory that says Australians should not travel to
Aceh unless they were working for a recognised aid organisation that had a security
plan approved by Indonesian authorities in place.
The spokesman refused to say whether Australian agencies had received any
intelligence about a specific terrorist threat to aid workers in Aceh.
"We'd never go into the specifics of intelligence," he said.
Copyright © 2005. The Sydney Morning Herald.
|
