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Civilians bear brunt of Aceh fight
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- Indonesia is stepping up its military offensive against separatists in Aceh with both sides trading accusations civilians are being targeted in the fighting. So far, the military is claiming the upper hand in its latest push -- which began Monday -- to wipe out the rebels, claiming more than a dozen have been killed. But rebels say many of the dead are innocent civilians. The commander of the military campaign has denied allegations from the rebel Free Aceh Movement that soldiers killed 10 civilians -- including two 12-year-old boys -- during a Wednesday raid on a fishing village in northern Aceh. "It's basically a massacre against civilians," rebel spokesman Tengku Sofyan Dawood told The Associated Press on Thursday. "This is not a clash or a gunbattle between rebels and the military. It's the military shooting innocent civilians." Aceh military chief Major Endang Suwarya denied the allegations. "Absolutely no civilians were killed," he told the wire service. The military accuse the rebels of torching more than 200 schools and has now ordered that arsonists be shot on sight. It is also considering a night curfew in some of the most troubled areas. But because peace monitors have fled the area it is impossible to verify the claims either side make. Familiar storyFor the embattled Acehnese now living under martial law, it is a familiar story from a familiar guerilla war -- but it is not the way this military operation was meant to be. Indonesia had promised this campaign would be quick and clean following the breakdown of peace talks last weekend. An overwhelming force of more than 40,000 troops has been shipped in to wipe out a force of little more than 5,000 poorly organized rebels, CNN's Atika Shubert reports. The plan was for it all to be over in six months, but the guerrilla movement appears only to be immersing itself deeper into Aceh's yielding population, Shubert said. Indonesia's military now says it needs more time, and harsher measures to get the job done. Commanders say troops will not only target rebels but anyone deemed to be separatist sympathizers. With the people of Aceh now getting squeezed, Shubert says, busses and truck drivers now refuse to ply the provinces main supply route because of the frequent and sporadic clashes between the two sides. Hundreds of passengers have been stranded and food supplies halted. "The situation is very tense. For people like me who live out in the villages, we get really scared when we hear reports of bombs going off," one villager told CNN. "We want the government to stop the military operations for now. We want the peace talks to resume." But Indonesia says military force is the government's only option. Aceh has grown restive over the years of Indonesian rule with many of its four million mostly poor inhabitants perceiving Jakarta as an occupying force plundering the province's natural resources while giving little in return. In an attempt to ease separatist tensions, in January 2002 the central government granted Aceh special autonomy, including the implementation of Islamic shariah law and greater revenue-sharing from the extraction of its natural resources. -- CNN Correspondent Atika Shubert contributed to this report Copyright 2003 CNN. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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