Jakarta – A leader of the insurgents fighting Indonesian rule in Aceh province said Tuesday he expects the war to continue even if a former peace negotiator is elected as Indonesia's new president.
With over half of the votes counted from Monday's presidential election, former security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is almost certain to become Indonesia's next president. Official results will be announced on October 5.
Yudhoyono was instrumental in arranging the internationally mediated peace talks that resulted in a six-month cease-fire in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island in 2003. However, the peace process collapsed after a faction of hardline generals convinced President Megawati Sukarnoputri to impose martial law and arrest a group of negotiators from the Free Aceh movement which has been fighting for independence since 1976.
"Yudhoyono is well-educated and he understands the political impact and implications of dialogue, but he is still a military man and thinks militarily," Bakhtiar Abdullah, a spokesman for the rebels, said in a telephone interview from Stockholm.
Indonesia's longest-running and bloodiest conflict has caused the deaths of at least 15,000 people in the past 28 years.
"Whatever happens in Jakarta is irrelevant to the people of Aceh because they are still getting killed, tortured and oppressed every day. Prominent figures are being killed, our negotiators have been arrested and given long jail terms or banished," said Bakhtiar who, along with other Aceh leaders, lives in exile in Sweden. "The situation in the field has not changed and it will not change," he said.
The war in the province of 4 million people has been going on intermittently since 1870, when Dutch colonial troops occupied the independent sultanate. The latest round of fighting began in 1976, and the rebels are now demanding a UN-supervised independence referendum akin to the one that ended Indonesian rule in East Timor in 1999.
The Indonesian military recently vowed to step up anti-guerrilla operations, and has promised that rebel strength would be reduced by 75% by the end of this year. At least 2,200 people have been killed since Jakarta launched its latest offensive in May 2003.
Bakhtiar said the separatists were willing to negotiate but only under certain conditions. "How can you have dialogue when there is a war going on? How can you talk about peace and wage war at the same time?" he asked.
Indonesian and international human rights organizations say most of the victims in Aceh are innocent villagers caught up in army sweeps through the countryside. They have also warned that the killings by the military are fostering resentment against Jakarta and generating greater support for secession.
Yudhoyono has publicly rejected any possibility of allowing the oil-and gas-rich province to secede from the sprawling archipelago nation. Nevertheless, international mediators who participated in the stalled talks say they expect the peace process to resume under his administration.