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Last Sunday peace-talks ended between the Indonesian government and the rebels on Aceh (or Atjeh). The next day the Indonesian military immediately invaded the region again. According to this report from BBC News, one of the targets are the schools, with both sides claiming that the opponent is burning them down.
Rumours are abound that the Indonesian government arranged to have the peace talks fail so they could invade the region. In a way it sounds a lot like what is happening in other parts of the world (Israel/Palestine).
C ya!
Marty
Last Sunday peace-talks ended between the Indonesian government and the rebels on Aceh (or Atjeh). The next day the Indonesian military immediately invaded the region again. According to this report from BBC News, one of the targets are the schools, with both sides claiming that the opponent is burning them down.
Fierce fighting erupts in Aceh
Fierce fighting has broken out in Indonesia's Aceh province, in what appear to be the bloodiest clashes since the military launched a major offensive against separatist rebels.
A spokesman for the rebel Free Aceh Movement (Gam) said 13 people, including 10 civilians, had been killed in a military attack near the town of Bireuen.
An Indonesian military spokesman confirmed that an operation was under way in the region, but gave no details.
The government on Monday declared martial law and announced an all-out military offensive against Gam.
More than 150 schools have been burnt down in the province, with both sides blaming each other for the destruction.
Officials say the education of tens of thousands of children is being disrupted.
Media clampdown
More troops were parachuted into the province as Indonesia's military chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, urged his forces to "hunt down and exterminate" the separatists.
"Chase them, destroy Gam," said General Sutarto.
"Don't talk about it, just finish them off."
The Indonesian military governor in Aceh has ordered a clampdown on media reporting in order to deny separatist rebels a platform.
"We will bring a halt to the news from the spokesmen of Gam because they are turning the facts upside down," said Major General Endang Suwarya.
The BBC's Jakarta correspondent Rachel Harvey says that under martial law, the governor is the ultimate authority in Aceh and, in theory at least, has the power to impose whatever restrictions he deems necessary.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said on Tuesday that she had ordered the military operation with a "heavy heart" and urged the country to back her.
Gam spokesman Mahmood Malik has vowed the rebels will "fight forever".
Schools targeted
The arson attacks on local schools have spread terror among Acehnese civilians.
"First we heard gunshots so we thought a crossfire was taking place," a young mother in the provincial capital Banda Aceh told Reuters news agency.
Indonesia's flashpoints
"We all cried when we realised the school has been reduced to ashes. Why should anyone attack a school?" she said.
In the eastern district of Bireuen, more than 50 schools have been burned down.
There is no independent confirmation of who carried out the raids.
Our correspondent says local villagers are too scared to say, even if they knew who did it.
There are 28,000 Indonesian soldiers in Aceh, confronting 5,000 Gam fighters.
Correspondents say the rebels' strongest defence is their ability to melt into the heavy forest - and into the local population.
Acehnese resentment against Jakarta's rule has been fuelled by perceived abuses by the Indonesian military, and a feeling that the government is exploiting the region's resources.
The failed peace deal, signed in December, offered Aceh an autonomous government by 2004, which would have been allowed to keep 70% of the revenue generated from the province's rich oil reserves.
Rumours are abound that the Indonesian government arranged to have the peace talks fail so they could invade the region. In a way it sounds a lot like what is happening in other parts of the world (Israel/Palestine).
C ya!
Marty