Indonesian troops waging war on separatist rebels in Aceh province have shot dead at least 15 guerrillas in one of the bloodiest days of their two-month offensive, the military said.
Spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki said three members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were killed in raids and 12 more in six firefights on Wednesday but no soldiers were hurt.
Basuki said five of the rebels were killed in one clash at Jeumpa in Bireuen district. He said an unidentified body was also found and rebels shot dead a civilian in Aceh Besar, for a total death toll on Wednesday of 17.
According to military figures issued Wednesday, 457 rebels have been killed and 203 firearms seized since the start of the offensive on May 19. It was not clear whether the figure included the latest death toll. The military says 366 rebels have been captured and another 340 have surrendered, for the loss of 43 military and police officers.
GAM has said many of those killed by the military are civilians. Independent confirmation of reports by either side is difficult after restrictions were imposed on the movement of reporters and non-government organisations in Aceh.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), in a report issued Thursday, said US-inspired press restrictions and controls on foreigners in the province have made it almost impossible to learn "anything of substance" about the conflict. "Despite a generally free press since the ouster of former dictator Suharto in 1998, the Indonesian military's implementation of US-inspired policies has turned Aceh into one of the most restrictive places in the world for the press," the report said.
Since May 19 the armed forces have introduced progressively tougher press restrictions that keep local reporters hemmed in and effectively bar foreign journalists from the scene of conflict, CPJ said. Indonesia has "embedded" some local reporters with its forces and has warned others not to quote rebel spokesmen.
"At stake, some believe, is Indonesia's world image ... The more that public scrutiny can be kept away from the battlefield – and away from potential human rights abuses – the less chance there is for widespread international condemnation of the current offensive," the CPJ report said. It said lessons learned during the 1999 East Timor crisis appear also to be applied in some ways in Aceh.
Troops used pro-Jakarta militias to attack and harass the press especially after the August 1999 vote by East Timorese to separate from Indonesia. "Once the press, both foreign and local, was essentially driven out of East Timor, a scorched-earth policy went into effect," CPJ said.
In Aceh journalists are increasingly caught between both sides and are at great risk of attack or worse, it said. GAM is still holding a television reporter and cameraman and three civilians who were kidnapped on June 29.
In Indonesia's biggest military operation for a quarter-century an estimated 30,000 troops and 10,000 police are battling a guerrilla force whose strength was originally put by the military at around 5,000. Another 425 soldiers arrived along with more 24 tanks in North Aceh on Thursday, SCTV television reported.
GAM has been fighting for independence since 1976. An estimated 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since then in the province on Sumatra island.