Jerry Norton and Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – An Indonesian presidential candidate who once headed the country's armed forces said on Thursday that if elected he would move quickly to end an intensive military campaign against rebels in Aceh province.
"I will soon, of course, have a speedy halt to the military operation in Aceh," former general Wiranto told foreign correspondents.
"We will develop the stronger spirit to rehabilitate and to act on reconciliation with the disputing parties," said the 55-year-old Wiranto, who has been charged with human rights violations by prosecutors in East Timor.
Wiranto, who traded his uniform for civilian clothes in 2000, is considered among the top contenders to be the nominee of Golkar, the second largest party in parliament, in July's presidential election.
Wiranto said he hates bloodshed and believed that in the Aceh conflict "each killing will of course generate a sort of a vengeance" in what could become an unstoppable cycle.
Indonesia has been fighting Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels in the resource-rich province at Sumatra's northern tip with varying intensity for some 28 years.
It recently extended what was originally billed as an all-out campaign to crush the rebels. The offensive that began last May has added several thousand casualties to the estimated 10,000 killed earlier in the conflict.
Wiranto is a colourful figure credited with trying to hold down violence during riots in the last days of the authoritarian Suharto regime and for expediting Suharto's resignation.
But he has also been blamed by human rights groups and others for not doing enough to stop sectarian and ethnic clashes after Suharto's fall and as defence minister and military commander – for the violence in East Timor. More than 1,000 people were killed in the period surrounding a 1999 vote for independence in the then Indonesian-controlled territory.
Wiranto repeated denials on Thursday that he had committed human rights violations, citing an Indonesian investigation. "I was investigated and interrogated" and it was found "I was not guilty and not involved", he said.
East Timor is conducting its own human rights prosecutions over the violence, much of it carried out by pro-Jakarta militia units linked to the Indonesian military. It has indicted a number of current and former Indonesian officers. Indonesia has declined to extradite any. Among some Indonesians such controversy may be less important than the hope Wiranto could provide the strong leadership they feel the sprawling country of 210 million people has lacked under the presidency of Megawati Sukarnoputri.
But Megawati, daughter of the country's founding father and first president Sukarno, remains the odds-on favourite to win the likely run-off election in September.
As many as five candidates are expected to contest in July, making it difficult for anyone to get the required majority.