Indonesian war aims to smash rebels

BANDA ACEH - Indonesia's military launched rocket attacks on rebel bases in Aceh yesterday and troops parachuted in, hours after President Megawati Sukarnoputri put the province under martial law.

Smoke rose from hills after two jets swooped low over a rise not far from the airport at the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

Hercules transport aircraft dropped hundreds of troops near the airport.

Laden with heavy packs, many took defensive positions in fields.

Officials also said about 700 marines had come ashore near the industrial town of Lhokseumawe.

Megawati gave the go-ahead for war against the rebels after last-ditch peace talks in Tokyo collapsed, leaving a landmark peace pact welcomed by Aceh's four million people in tatters.

Megawati told Indonesians seeking independence for their regions to leave the country.

"People who have that view had better leave Indonesia," she told a meeting at Surabaya in East Java.

"It won't do any damage to Indonesia to lose several people, rather than jeopardising 220 million other people in Indonesia."

The President said Indonesians enjoyed freedom and she could not understand why some people thought they would be better off if they went it alone.

"Sometimes I think, when I'm upset like now, people like these had better go."

Military chief General Endriartono Sutarto had clear instructions for his troops as they embarked on one of their biggest campaigns since the 1975 invasion of East Timor.

"Their job is to destroy the armed forces of GAM through to their roots," Sutarto said, referring to the Free Aceh Movement.

He said the military had detected key GAM leadership sites and early operations were aimed at taking those out.

The overall aim was to reduce GAM to its "smallest unit" within six months.

In Banda Aceh, 1700km northwest of Jakarta, there was little sign of martial law as children went to school, shops opened and cars and motorbikes jostled for space.

Trader Tengku Muhammad, 47, said Acehnese felt helpless and prayed that the war would not be long or take a heavy toll in human life.

"Everyone in Aceh is in fear. I have resigned myself to God," he said.

Megawati said GAM's refusal to give up its 27-year demand for independence gave her no option but to declare martial law.

Her increasingly tough stance - not a total surprise considering her nationalist roots - has won praise from ordinary Indonesians and should be a boost going into the country's first direct presidential election next year.

It also confirms the military's inside track on national decision-making after several years of keeping a relatively low profile.

The armed forces' image was tarnished under the authoritarian President Suharto, who stepped down in 1998.

But images of fresh conflict will do little to convince investors that Indonesia is safe for business, even though Aceh has been violent for decades.

Exxon Mobil, which operates some of Indonesia's biggest natural gas fields in Aceh, said its production was unaffected and it had no plan to evacuate staff.

The Aceh peace agreement was beset by bickering and mistrust over the issue of independence, which GAM has long demanded but Indonesia refuses to give.

The peace pact did not address this in detail, focusing more on trying to halt the fighting.

GAM has since said it was ready to resume one of Asia's longest-running separatist wars that has killed 10,000 people.

Megawati has put Aceh military chief Major General Endang Suwarya in charge of the province.

The military has the power to impose a news blackout and curfews, detain people and limit or stop transport into and out of Aceh.

The staunchly Muslim province is one of two separatist hot spots in Indonesia.

The other is Papua in the far east.

A small separatist movement also exists in the Maluku islands.

Freedom Fight

Aceh declared itself an independent Islamic state in 1953, triggering a four-year conflict in which the Indonesian military under President Sukarno managed to suppress the state.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was founded in 1976.