Jakarta – Security personnel shot dead at least 25 rebels in two of the bloodiest days of the military offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the military has deployed its medical personnel to provide health aid for Acehnese people taking refuge in many districts in the province.
Three rebels were shot dead in a midday gunfight in Aceh Besar district on Thursday, a military officer was quoted by AFP as saying. Separately, a Mobile Brigade squad commander said his troops shot dead a suspected rebel who tried to flee after his arrest in the regency.
The deaths came in addition to 21 other rebels reportedly killed during eleven gunfights over the last two days, said spokesman for the martial law administration Col. (Navy) Ditya Soedarsono.
According to military figures issued before the latest deaths were recorded, 481 rebels have been killed and 210 firearms seized since the launching of the military operation on May 19. Authorities say 992 rebels have been captured or surrendered, with the loss of 43 military and police officers.
GAM has claimed that 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 organizations in Aceh.
Ditya also said that as of Thursday, the Aceh Police had filed dossiers on 120 of 154 suspected GAM members with the government prosecutor's office as part of law enforcement operations in the province. So far, the police had detained 277 suspected members of the separatist movement, he added. The local court has given its verdict on only three alleged GAM members.
Ditya also said that at least 1,400 Acehnese refugees in a number of districts in Aceh province were receiving health services every day. Most were children or the elderly suffering from dermatitis, coughs and respiratory problems, he said.
If medical equipment were considered inadequate to serve the needs of patients at refuge camps, patients were taken to the nearest hospital, he said, adding that, so far, 65 refugees had been hospitalized.
Ditya warned that the number of displaced people would likely continue to increase in the coming days, given the military's attempt to sterilize villages that were GAM bases.
Amid the military offensive, thousands of Indonesian flags have already been raised in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh in observance of the 58th anniversary of Indonesia's independence, which falls on August 17. Residents of the city have raised the Indonesian flag, as they were ordered by the martial law administration to do.
Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen. Bachrumsyah Kasman claimed that GAM members had scattered following the intensive offensive. "If there is robbery, arson or shooting at people, it means that GAM members are suffering from hunger and panic," he said.
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 had made it almost impossible to learn "anything of substance" about the conflict.
"Despite a generally free press since the ouster of former dictator Soeharto 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.