Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Human rights and community groups are accusing the Indonesian military of provoking violence in Indonesia's northern Aceh province, where more than 80,000 people have fled their homes.
The violence is adding to worries in Jakarta that giving East Timorese the right to decide their own future at a United Nations-supervised ballot scheduled for next month will escalate conflict in Aceh, where more than 100 people have been killed in the past three months.
Mr Marzuki Darusman, the deputy chairman of the ruling Golkar party, who also heads Indonesia's human rights commission, said that if East Timor broke away "it will have an impact on the situation in Aceh, unless the Government starts to get its act together".
President Dr B.J. Habibie agreed in January to a ballot giving East Timorese a say in their future. But influential figures in Indonesia's armed forces have argued the move would fuel separatist sentiments in other parts of the country, especially Aceh and Irian Jaya.
In Aceh, the military has been accused of widespread atrocities over the past nine years. Violence has escalated there since the dispatch of a 1,200-strong force of anti-riot police and troops in May, boosting the number of armed forces to more than 9,000.
A leading human rights activist, Mr Munir, the co-ordinator of the Working Council for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, this week urged the Government to have the courage to withdraw its armed forces from Aceh.
"The conflict in Aceh has all along mainly been between the local people and the military troops," he said. "So deployment of more troops will only worsen the problem."
But after clashes that left at least 10 people dead over several days this week the head of the armed forces, General Wiranto, defended the presence of the extra personnel, saying they were deployed to "restore order, not to engage in combat".
The Free Aceh Movement has been fighting for the establishment of a independent Islamic State since the 1970s, prompting a harsh military crackdown that Dr Habibie promised would stop in August last year, three months after he had replaced former president Soeharto.
Tensions eased late last year but resurfaced in recent months, particularly since soldiers shot dead 41 civilian protesters in Lhokseumawe on May 3.
In a campaign of renewed terror, hundreds of homes and other buildings have been torched, women raped and hundreds of people attacked. Some victims found recently had their throats cut.
Children are dying from malnutrition and lack of medicines and thousands of families are living in what aid agencies describe as shocking conditions in refugee centres.
Mr Abdullah Syafi'i, the head of the Free Aceh Movement in the district of Pidie, was quoted by the Kompas newspaper yesterday as declaring that Aceh would soon have its independence.
"The Republic of Indonesia will disintegrate like the Soviet union", he said. "That's because the republic never had any historical roots to begin with."
Asked about an offer from the military to withdraw from Aceh if the rebel movement gave up its weapons, Mr Syafi'i said: "That's a crazy proposal. How can we give up our weapons we badly need to protect our people. Anyway why would we make any agreement with liars."