Daniel Cooney, Jakarta – Indonesia has deployed about 1,500 troops to protect Exxon Mobil oil fields from rebel attacks in the violence-plagued province of Aceh, the government said Saturday.
"This is biggest security deployment in Indonesia ever to defend a vital installation," said Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's top security minister. He said the army had sent three battalions to the area.
Two people were killed and four injured by fighting on Friday in the oil-rich province, where insurgents from the Free Aceh Movement have been battling for independence for 25 years.
Fighting in the region 1,100 miles northwest of Jakarta has killed 6,000 people in the last decade, most of them civilians.
Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp. suspended operations in the region last week and evacuated its staff after repeated attacks by rebels. The company sells the oil it extracts to Indonesia's state-owned Pertamina.
Japanese company Tohoku Electric Power Co. has also said it will begin buying natural gas from Malaysia instead of Indonesia after violence disrupted production in Aceh.
Indonesia initially said it would still be able to honor its supply contracts with Japan and South Korea by tapping gas fields in other parts of the country.
However, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric said Indonesia had not been able to fulfill its supply agreements.
Tohoku Electric's decision is another blow to Indonesia's struggling economy, which relies heavily on oil and gas exports.
To help shore up the economy, the Asian Development Bank said Saturday it is willing to extend annual loans of between $600 million to $1.2 billion to Indonesia if the country makes political and economic reforms, including a cleanup of its debt-ridden banking industry.
Aceh is one of several regions in Indonesia that have been wracked by separatist, religious and ethnic violence.
A bomb exploded on a railway bridge near Jakarta on Saturday, slightly damaging the end of a freight train but causing no injuries, police said. Police defused another bomb found nearby. Rail service was interrupted for about seven hours, officials said.
Also Saturday, four people were injured when about 200 striking hotel workers clashed with police in Jakarta outside the five-star Shangri-La Hotel. The workers, who are demanding raises, had tried to force their way into the building.