Jakarta – The United States government maintained on Thursday its opposition to separatism such as that in Aceh, but warned the Indonesian government to be "conscious of the local people's human rights."

"Of course we support Indonesia's territorial integrity and oppose separatism. But we hope that Indonesia will support us, too [in respect of ExxonMobil]," US Ambassador to Indonesia Robert S. Gelbard told The Jakarta Post after signing an agreement for a school milk project at the Ministry of National Education here.

"And we believe that the [Indonesian] government needs to be very conscious of the people's human rights. But again, we oppose separatism ... we've made that very clear to the GAM [Free Aceh Movement] and the GAM has no support internationally. Zero [support]," Gelbard said.

"ExxonMobil unfortunately have had to close down temporarily because of the security conditions. They were being bombed, their airplanes were being attacked. One of their planes got hit with bullets while it was in the air, and there have been lots of mortar attacks so that the lives of the people have been put in serious danger.

"It is not accurate to say that this military offensive started because of ExxonMobil. I think this military offensive was already underway, already planned," he said.

Gelbard added that ExxonMobil obviously wanted to complete their contract of work, but at the same time they had to safeguard their employees' lives.

He said it was very important for the government in Jakarta to listen to the aspirations of the people in Aceh.

On the planned limited military operation in Aceh, Gelbard said "that is entirely for the Indonesian government to decide." "What I support is an approach that embraces the people. And that shows the people why the Indonesian government cares about them," he said.

This included matters involving autonomy, economic development, justice and revenue sharing, all of which should be accelerated by the government, Gelbard said.

"I think, of course, there is hope for the settlement of the Aceh matter and we think we have some ideas on how it could be done. We have some aid programs we would love to be able to function in Aceh, but unfortunately some parts of the government have been blocking them ... Bakin [The State Intelligence Coordinating Agency] did that," Gelbard added.