A major Indonesian military assault on separatist rebels in Aceh province could continue for five more months, the army and armed forces chiefs said.
"Within less than five months there should already be a drastic change in Aceh. There should be a change towards a better situation every day," army chief General Ryamizard Ryacudu told troops who arrived in Aceh Monday to join the country's biggest military operation for a quarter-century.
Ryacudu urged some 400 members of the elite strategic reserve Kostrad to keep up the pressure on Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fighters and not give them a chance to regroup.
The government imposed a six-month state of martial law and launched the military operation on May 19, hours after peace talks broke down in Tokyo.
Armed forces commander General Endriartono Sutarto said in Jakarta it would take more than six months to eradicate GAM. "To completely eliminate GAM, more time is needed," Sutarto said, according to the Detikcom online news service. However the armed forces chief said some targets had been achieved ahead of schedule – with troops starting to enter "core" rebel areas after two weeks, instead of after the forecast two months.
Since May 19, according to military figures, 206 rebels have been killed and hundreds more have been arrested or surrendered for the loss of 26 soldiers and police. Almost 42,000 civilians have been forced to flee their homes for tented camps, more than 500 schools have gone up in flames and an unknown number of civilians have died.
The Indonesian Red Cross says it has recovered 176 bodies in civilian clothes but cannot say whether they are civilians or guerrilla fighters. International rights groups have accused both sides of serious rights abuses.
"I do not want to hear that some of you are hurting the people," Ryacudu told the Kostrad members. If soldiers abided by the law and their orders, "there will be no one who will have the right to protest against you, citing human rights and democracy as reasons".
Kostrad commander Bibit Waluyo told reporters his command now has some 10,000 men in Aceh in addition to some 20,000 soldiers from other units. There are some 10,000 police in Aceh and the navy, marines and air force also involved.
British-made Hawk aircraft flew operations Monday in defiance of British requests that the planes should not be used in Aceh. US- made Bronco aircraft and Hawks dropped "sonic bombs" over suspected rebel concentrations at Jeuli in Bireuen district and at Jambo Aye in North Aceh, said a military spokesman, Firdaus Komarno. "The aims are to disturb the concentrations of GAM troops in the area," he said, adding that such bombs would not have caused casualties.
Indonesia's operation is set to win backing from a meeting in Phnom Penh of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A draft communique seen Monday recognises "the efforts of the Indonesian government to restore peace and order in Aceh".
Two schoolteachers have been found tortured and murdered a day after they were abducted by unidentified men in southwest Aceh, said another military spokesman who blamed GAM. The provincial education office says 60 schoolteachers have been killed in the past four months.
GAM has been fighting for independence since 1976. An estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since then.