Yuswardi A. Suud, Banda Aceh – The Aceh emergency military command (PDMD) will prohibit foreign observers from monitoring the elections in locations which are categorised as hot spots (black zones) – areas classified as being a significant security risk. They will only given permission to observers to monitor the elections in a number of pre-determined sub-districts.

PDMD commander, Major General Endang Suwarya, said that this policy decision was taken to protect the safety of foreign observers should they actually be given permission to enter Aceh. "This is more about the question of safety. After all, what is important is that they can[not](1) monitor anywhere. The situation will be the same anyway, won't it", Suwarya told journalists after meeting with the Integrated Operation Monitoring Team at the Iskandar Muda territorial military command (Kodam) in Banda Aceh on Wednesday March 10.

According to Suwarya, they will select a number of sub-districts in each regency in Aceh which can be accessed by foreign observers. In carrying out their duties, foreign election observers will be watched closely so that they do not do anything which is beyond their authority in their capacity as election observers. They will also be accompanied by police officers while they are monitoring. Suwarya said that the PDMD is in the process of formulating guidelines for foreign election observers in Aceh.

The secretary of the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Sudi Silalahi, confirmed that there would be restrictions on foreign election observers in Aceh. "There will be guidelines which must be followed. Aceh is different from other parts of the country", said Silalahi. The minister [Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono] said Silalahi, will give the PDMD special authority to determine these restrictions on foreign observers.

To facilitate security, the PDMD has already allocated security levels to the 11,025 polling stations spread over 4,440 districts. Of this total, 1,365 districts are categorised as safe zones, 622 are security level 1 areas which are often referred to as gray zones and 452 are security level 2 areas or black zones.

Notes:

1. This quote is probably erroneous and resulted from a typing error. Suwarya's actual meaning is that election monitors will not be able to go anywhere they like but only to specific locations pre-determined by the military but in his view it won't make any difference in terms of what they see since the elections will be conducted in the same manner regardless of the security level at a particular sub-district/regency.

[Translated by James Balowski.]