Mark Baker, Phnom Penh – The Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, has strongly defended the Indonesian military crackdown in Aceh and criticised the violent tactics of the province's secessionist rebels.
Mr Downer said Indonesia was entitled to combat attempts by the Free Aceh Movement – GAM – to force the creation of a breakaway state. However, he urged both sides in the deepening conflict to resolve the issue peacefully and to respect human rights.
"There is a lot of focus in the Western media on the Indonesian military and there's some history to that, no doubt," he said in an interview with CNN. "But it also has to be remembered that GAM have been perpetrating some terrible acts of violence and the pressure should also be maintained on them and they should not be seen as some sort of honest and honourable victims." As Mr Downer applauded the Indonesian Government for allowing journalists and human rights groups access to Aceh, fresh restrictions were announced to control entry to the province.
More than 200 people have been reported killed and thousands more displaced in the month-long campaign by the Indonesian armed forces. Human rights groups have accused the military and GAM of widespread abuses.
"What you have in the case of Aceh is a secessionist movement which is determined, through the use of violence, to try to cut that part of Indonesia off the republic and that's not something the international community supports," said Mr Downer, who is attending the regional forum of the Association of South-East Asian Nations in Cambodia.
"Obviously we would rather the matter was solved diplomatically and that's very much the preferable outcome," he said. "But it also has to be said that the Indonesians have a right to deal with organisations that mount militant acts against their own people.
"So we understand that it's preferable for this to be negotiated diplomatically, but this is part of Indonesia's territory." Mr Downer rejected claims that international non-government organisations were being hampered in their efforts to monitor alleged human rights abuses in the conflict.
"Actually, there is more access in Aceh now for human rights groups and others – for example the media – than traditionally has been the case," he said. "The problem of Aceh is not a new problem. This has been going on for decades or even more, and during the Soeharto years the media and NGOs were just completely excluded from an area like Aceh. But nowadays they do have some access there." Mr Downer said Australia urged the Indonesian authorities and GAM to respect human rights.
On Tuesday ASEAN foreign ministers gave strong support to the crackdown by Indonesia, a fellow ASEAN member. "We ... pledged our support to deny the separatist movement access to means of violence through ... preventing arms smuggling into the Aceh province," the ministers said in a communique. Indonesian military officials have claimed that weapons are being smuggled to the Aceh rebels from Cambodia, Thailand and Sri Lanka.