Indonesia on Wednesday began restricting the movements of the 2Â 000 foreigners helping the tsunami relief operation in Aceh, ordering aid groups and journalists to register, seek permission before leaving the province’s two main towns, and only travel with a military escort.
The government also indicated that it would like most foreign nationals to leave the province by March 27 or when the majority of Acehnese requiring assistance are in camps accessible by road.
Aid agencies appeared unconcerned by the move confining their access to Banda Aceh and Meulaboh, but separatists are interpreting the move as the start of the Indonesian military’s campaign to reassert its grip over a region that was in a state of civil emergency and off-limits to foreigners before the December 26 disaster.
The authorities are using the threat posed by the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), which has been fighting for independence since 1976, as the reason for the clampdown.
“The government would be placed in a very difficult position if any foreigner who came to Aceh to assist in the aid effort was harmed through the acts of an irresponsible party,” Budi Atmadi, the operations chief of the government’s disaster relief team, said.
Indonesia’s military commander, General Endriartono Sutarto, said on Wednesday Gam had not suspended its operations.
“We have had confirmation that Gam is still conducting armed activity,” he said.
“They say their struggle is for the people of Aceh but it is clear that it is not. That is why we have introduced the new procedure. I don’t want foreigners killed.”
General Endriartono highlighted the case of a local doctor briefly kidnapped by Gam in the first week after the tsunami as proof of the separatists’ intentions.
Aceh-based officers say there have been other clashes but there has been no independent proof of this.
Some foreign troops, like the United States marines based on ships offshore, have curtailed their intended activities following Indonesian military objections.
Instead of participating in civil engineering projects the force is doing little more than providing a ferry service up and down the west coast.
Gam has dismissed the government’s move as unnecessary because, the group claims, it is not conducting offensive operations and will allow foreign aid workers free passage across the province.
“Such a restriction is merely a move aimed at scaring off international aid workers, and it comes amid tremendous anxiety over their presence in Aceh,” Gam’s military commander, Muzakkir Manaf, said. – Guardian Unlimited Â