More than 25,000 civilians are now living as refugees in Indonesia's Aceh province, where a major attack on separatist rebels continues, and the military said it may have forced some to quit their homes.
The refugees are living in sixteen tented camps in nine districts, said Colonel Ditya Sudarsono, spokesman for the martial law administrator. Some of these camps are in "black" or rebel-dominated areas like Bireuen, Pidie, East Aceh and North Aceh, Sudarsono told AFP by phone from Banda Aceh.
He said it was "quite possible" that security forces had forcibly moved some of the refugees into the camps for their own safety. "It is quite possible for troops to have forced them to leave their homes as part of security operations to distinguish them from GAM [Free Aceh Movement] rebels. But once troops finished combing the area, the residents may return to their homes," he said. "Our objective is to protect civilians and to keep them from becoming victims of GAM," the spokesman said.
He said security forces would regard villagers who refuse to be moved as GAM because "that means they are protecting GAM and that makes them GAM members or its supporters." But if they were unarmed, they would not be treated similarly to armed rebels.
Security analysts have said the military is planning a "hamleting" operation to move people out of villages with a strong rebel presence. But there had been no official admission before that some residents would be forced to move.
The social affairs ministry said earlier this month it would provide enough tents for 60,000 people. It said civilians would not be forced to leave combat zones but would be strongly advised to do so.
Amnesty International, in a report released Wednesday, said the displacement of civilians for conflict-related reasons, "unless the security of the civilians or imperative military reasons so demand, is considered a crime under international law." The rights group said that in the past, force – including threats and burning of houses – has been employed to make people leave their villages.
Amnesty said rights activists were banned from the province and international humanitarian organisations were being encouraged by the authorities to leave.
It called on Jakarta to let international agencies deliver supplies directly and said the insistence that all aid should be channelled through the authorities "risks creating additional and unnecessary suffering for the civilian population." Up to 40,000 police and soldiers are confronting an estimated 5,000 rebels from GAM, which has been fighting for an independent state since 1976. Some 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the past 27 years.
Sudarsono said as of Wednesday, some 92 rebels had surrendered but declined to give overall casualty figures for the operation launched on May 19.
Troops on Tuesday shot dead three suspected rebels in an attack on a GAM hideout in the village of Lamneh in West Aceh, said a district military spokesman. He said soldiers the same day killed a 23-year-old rebel in the Trumon area of South Aceh and confiscated his AK-47 rifle.
Humanitarian workers on Tuesday found two bodies bearing gunshot wounds and torture marks in the village of Lamreh in Aceh Besar district.