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Jakarta gives up attempt to brand rebels as terrorists

Indonesia has backed down on a plan to ask the UN to declare the separatist Free Aceh Movement a terrorist organization -- apparently hoping to avoid an international spotlight on the 27-year-old rebel war.

"We have considered this fully. But we do not want to internationalize the Aceh issue," Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Indonesia's security minister, told reporters on Monday.

Yudhoyono did not elaborate on what he meant. But some believe the government's change of heart reflects a reluctance to have international observers and other foreigners monitoring the situation in Aceh, where aid work and media coverage have been sharply curtailed in recent months.

More than 1,000 people, most of them alleged rebels, have been killed since Indonesia launched its current offensive in May after peace talks between the rebels and government broke down.

The 35,000-strong Indonesian military presence in the westernmost province today will be extended for another six months. Yudhoyono said the government had no plans to enter a new round of peace talks with the rebels, an option that had earlier been considered.

Although many countries have backed Indonesia's fight against the rebels, none has openly supported its bid in the UN to have the Free Aceh Movement declared a terror group.

Yudhoyono said Indonesia is instead asking other countries to declare the Aceh rebels criminals rather than terrorists.

Listing the group as a terrorist group would oblige UN members to arrest Acehnese rebel leaders -- many of whom are exiled in Sweden, Malaysia and the US -- and freeze their assets.

The government said earlier that the rebels could be labeled terrorists because they sought to terrorize the region by setting off bombs, killing civilians and setting public buildings ablaze.

However, Indonesian courts to date have not linked the rebel group to any specific terrorist act.

Jakarta insists that Aceh must remain part of Indonesia, but it has offered the region greater autonomy. The rebels, who want independence, have rejected previous offers of greater autonomy and additional revenues from the province's plentiful oil and natural gas.

The Free Aceh Movement has been fighting for an independent state on the northern tip of Sumatra island since 1976, when Jakarta broke a promise to give the province increased autonomy.

About 12,000 people have died in the Aceh war, many of them civilians.

Human rights groups have accused both the military and rebels of widespread human rights abuses.
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