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TITLE: Three Killed in Indonesia's Aceh, Truce Mocked |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: Reuters |
DATE: January 13, 2001 |
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JAKARTA - Three people have been killed and four wounded in a fresh bout of violence in Indonesia's restive Aceh province, showing the futility of a recently agreed cease-fire extension. Police say a total of eight people have been killed since the truce was announced on Wednesday while rebel leaders put the figure as high as 30. The latest clash occurred on Friday at a Mobil Oil Indonesia complex -- a subsidiary of Exxon-Mobil Corp -- in Lhokseumawe in the province's north. "Two soldiers were killed, and a 40-year-old woman also died in the incident,'' Aceh police spokesman Kusbini Imbar told Reuters on Saturday. But a Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman said 19 people were killed in the clash which flared because of intense police patrols in the area. "We heard about the sweeping patrols beforehand and warned the military and the Henry Dunant (Center for Humanitarian Dialogue) about a possible clash,'' spokesman Amni Marzuki said. The Henry Dunant center is a Swiss advocacy group which hosted this week's peace talks between the government and GAM in Geneva. The clash occurred at the guard post leading to the natural gas complex and police said it did not affect the plant's operations. A Week Of Bloodshed Indonesian security forces and rebels have clashed in numerous incidents across the bloodied province this week, making a mockery of the cease-fire extension and efforts to reach a political settlement over the decades-long conflict. The current six-month cease-fire expires on Monday but government representatives and GAM leaders agreed to extend the truce by one month. While both sides deemed the talks constructive, and a further meeting has been planned for February, it has not translated to peace on the ground. The cease-fire first took effect on June 2 and has largely been ignored by both sides, heightening despair among Aceh's four million people. Jakarta has firmly ruled out independence for the resource-rich and staunchly-Islamic province on the tip of Sumatra island but has instead offered special autonomy, due to take affect in May. The announcement to extend the cease-fire came as a surprise, as both sides had expressed pessimism that much headway could be made. Jakarta said the deal was a sign the rebels had provisionally agreed to end their armed struggle and look for a political solution to a conflict that has weighed heavily on the embattled administration of Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. Some activists have said the only way to properly enforce a cease-fire in Aceh was to call in the United Nations a proposition Jakarta has vehemently rejected. No foreign country has acknowledged Aceh's 1976 unilateral declaration of independence or offered public support to the separatists, who are believed to number in the thousands. END |