The Indonesian government said yesterday it will soon issue a decree authorizing a military operation against separatist insurgents in Aceh province, where the military reported that a senior rebel has defected.
"The president will soon issue a decree for the integrated operation," Defense Minister Matori Abdul Djalil told reporters before a Cabinet meeting.
He said President Megawati Sukarnoputri has already asked for a consultative meeting with parliament on today or tomorrow.
Indonesia's military commander said a top rebel had defected.
"We thank God that Amri Abdul Wahab has made a statement to return to the motherland," General Endriartono Sutarto told reporters.
Wahab was military operations commander for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels before his appointment in December to the Joint Security Committee (JSC), which was monitoring a ceasefire in the province.
The ceasefire has virtually collapsed. A government deadline for GAM to stop pushing for independence and to start disarming expired on Monday, the same day that more than 50 international JSC peace monitors withdrew from the province.
GAM's spokesman Sofyan Daud said Indonesian Kopassus special forces kidnapped Wahab on Monday in an effort to divide the rebel movement as the government prepares for a military offensive.
"It's very clear Amri was kidnapped by 10 Kopassus members," Daud said.
Fresh troops have poured into the Sumatra island province in recent days for the expected military offensive.
Yesterday the military transferred its Aceh command from the Acehnese Major General Djali Yusuf to his chief of staff Endang Suwarya, Elshinta radio reported.
The military has said Yusuf is approaching retirement.
Wahab was one of four GAM representatives on the JSC who were arrested on Friday. They were subsequently declared suspects in bombings in Jakarta and Medan in North Sumatra that police have blamed on GAM.
GAM denies involvement in the bombings.
They were released Sunday on a guarantee from the Henry Dunant Center, which mediated the Dec. 9 peace agreement.
Wahab was seized from his Banda Aceh hotel on Monday, GAM said. Indonesia's police chief, Da'i Bachtiar, said Wahab was yesterday on his way to Jakarta.
Daud, the GAM spokesman, urged security forces to bring Amri to Aceh and present him before reporters so that he can be questioned about his true feelings.
The government says any military operation will be accompanied by humanitarian operations, law enforcement and an effort to restore local government administration.
Humanitarian aid is greatly needed in Bireuen district where since Monday the number of refugees has reached more than 10,000, Mustafa Abdullah Geulanggang, the local government head, said yesterday.
The refugees left their homes to stay at a local school and mosque because they fear renewed fighting.
"Some of the refugees have started to be hit with respiratory tract infections, fevers and diarrhea," he said.
A 20-month-old baby, Aiyub Muzakir, died at the Agung Mosque refugee camp on Monday because of a lack of medicines, Geulanggang said.
Local journalists say some refugees at the Blang Bladeh school have been forced to sleep outside.
An estimated 10,000 people have died since GAM began its struggle for independence in 1976.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion