David Fogarty, Singapore – Deputy US Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called on Indonesia on Friday to ensure transparency in its military offensive in Aceh province and said independent monitoring should be allowed.
Wolfowitz, speaking after meeting Indonesia's defence minister in Singapore on the sidelines of a security conference, also called for a political solution to the struggle by Acehnese rebels for independence of the oil and gas-rich province.
"It would be very helpful if Indonesia would make sure that the actions of its forces are transparent and I think the request of some NGOs [non-governmental organisations] to be able to come into Aceh to monitor the situation are good requests. It will help encourage the world that Indonesia is behaving professionally and carefully," he added.
Indonesia said earlier this week that it had advised foreign aid workers in Aceh to leave because of security concerns.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Tuesday the five international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and four UN agencies operating in Aceh had not been banned from the province but were given little choice but to leave.
Thousands of people have fled their homes and food distribution has been disrupted since the military launched their offensive to crush Free Aceh Movement rebels and bring an end to a 27-year separatist conflict in which thousands have died.
Indonesian Defence Minister Matori Abdul Djalil, speaking to reporters after talks with Wolfowitz, said the military campaign in Aceh would be relatively short. "We hope the military action is not more than six months and maybe it will finish in two to three months. We understand that too long a measure is not good for our government."
His comments reinforced remarks from Indonesian military chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, who said on Wednesday that troops were making fast progress against the rebels and that he planned to speed up the campaign and finish it within two months.
Wolfowitz also said the killing of two American teachers in an ambush at a US-run mine in far eastern Papua province last year could still affect relations between the two nations. "We made it clear at the highest levels in Indonesia we need satisfactory cooperation with Indonesia or it will affect the whole relationship," he said.
More than a dozen gunmen ambushed a convoy near the mine operated by Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc last August, killing the teachers and an Indonesian. FBI agents joined an Indonesian team earlier this year to investigate but no one has been charged over the killings and no details of FBI's findings have been made public.