Jakarta – Indonesia warned rebels in Aceh on Thursday that it would soon step up military operations in the restive province, saying the government's willingness to compromise was ebbing fast.
Chief Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono accused rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) of exploiting the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan to launch attacks on security forces.
"We will definitely take firm action and in the coming months, the steps will be more intensive and coordinated. It's about time we stopped compromising to protect Indonesia's sovereignty," a grim-faced Yudhoyono told reporters.
Yudhoyono gave no precise details of an increase in military action, but security forces and GAM already engage in frequent clashes that are increasingly taking civilian lives in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
A military spokesman said this week that Indonesia planned to rotate almost half its troops through Aceh and Papua, the country's other separatist province in the remote east. But the spokesman said that did not mean they would all be stationed in the two resource-rich regions at the same time. It was not clear how many soldiers are already in Aceh or Papua.
While no foreign governments support independence efforts in Aceh or Papua, key partners have urged Jakarta to show restraint. During a visit to Jakarta this week, US Admiral Dennis Blair, commander of American forces in the Pacific, cautioned against counter-insurgency tactics so harsh that they generate more rebels than the number they destroy.
Yudhoyono said Aceh rebels had showed no sign of accepting a special autonomy package recently offered to give the province greater control over its affairs. GAM has long ruled out anything but independence for the province of four million people, home to key gas fields.
Many analysts believe President Megawati Sukarnoputri's uncompromising stance on the country's boundaries strikes a chord of approval among Indonesia's military, which has been struggling to repair its image, damaged by past abuse of human rights.