Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Jakarta plans a crackdown on separatist movements in Aceh and Irian Jaya that observers say will almost certainly end reconciliation talks promoted by President Abdurrahman Wahid and dramatically escalate violence across the country.
A new policy of not talking to separatist groups such as the Free Aceh Movement, endorsed by Cabinet this week, highlights how crippled Mr Wahid's presidency has become. The decision also shows that the armed forces are re-establishing their power amid the growing political instability.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Mohamad Mahfud, announced: "It is clear that within the next two weeks the Government will impose a new policy, that is to take firm action against separatist movement activities. Of course, we'll still hold dialogues, but not with the separatist groups. Aspirations for independence will not be discussed in the dialogues either."
Mr Mahfud told Indonesian journalists after a limited Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the Government was tired of prolonged peace talks with separatist groups.
"Look at the Free Aceh Movement. We have held talks with them twice but they were fruitless," he said. "They still ask for independence, which the Government will never allow."
Mr Mahfud, a former academic, has often made controversial statements he has later retracted. But he has repeatedly warned of a military crackdown on separatists if reconciliation talks failed.
The military has always opposed Mr Wahid's support for talks with separatist leaders in staunchly Islamic Aceh, where a so-called humanitarian pause agreed by both sides last year failed to stem the violence.
A renewal of the agreement in Geneva last weekend was greeted by more violence, which came as the military admitted that it planned to send several thousand more troops to the province, boosting a force already estimated to be 30,000-strong.
The Free Aceh Movement's military commander, Mr Abdullah Syafie, last week declared his forces would "create chaos all over the country" if joint police and military operations continued. "We do not want to incite war, but if we are pressed against the wall, we will have no other choice but to fight," he said.
A group of separatists from Irian Jaya, also known as West Papua, the minerals-rich province at the other end of the Indonesian archipelago, this week delivered a demand for independence to parliament. One of the group, Mr Willem Onde, said Papuans demand that the Government retract a shoot-on-sight order in the territory and release jailed political leaders.
Tensions have escalated in Irian Jaya since December, when Mr Wahid retracted a pledge to allow Papuans to fly the Morning Star, the separatist flag, and security forces arrested almost all the separatist leaders.
Mr Onde was allowed to come to Jakarta to meet political leaders after his group last month released unharmed 16 employees of a South Korean-owned timber company who had been abducted near the town of Merauke in Irian Jaya. Mr Onde told journalists that more abductions would take place because "our aspirations have gone unheeded".
Mr Mahfud said the Government was preparing a "legal umbrella" under which the military could act against separatists, hinting it might be through a presidential decree.
He said the Government planned a "comprehensive approach" to ending the separatist movements that would involve law enforcement and economic recovery as well as "social, religious and political activities".