| Subject: Deadly militia sets up in Aceh
Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia)
January 18, 2005 Tuesday
Deadly militia sets up in Aceh
Marianne Kearney
A MILITARY-backed militia group responsible for widespread killing and
looting when Indonesia pulled out of East Timor has established a base in
tsunami-devastated Aceh.
The local leader of Laskar Merah Putih, or Red and White Troops, says
the group is ready to defend the province from separatists.
The appearance of the group raises fears the military will try to use
the militia to sabotage a proposed post-tsunami ceasefire with the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM), and to intimidate Acehnese civilians.
Confirmation of the group's presence has come as Australian Defence
Minister Robert Hill toured Aceh yesterday ahead of Opposition foreign
affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd.
Mr Hill said Canberra encouraged a peaceful resolution to the
long-running conflict.
But Mr Rudd was less upbeat, predicting that the outpouring of grief
and goodwill following the tsunami may not be enough to forge a peaceful
outcome in Aceh.
"I think it's fair to say that there is not a whole lot of
optimism around the place that this will produce a magic wand which will
solve a long-standing problem," Mr Rudd said after a meeting with his
Indonesian foreign affairs minister Hassan Wirayuda.
For more than two decades GAM has been embroiled in a civil conflict
with Indonesia aimed at establishing Aceh as an independent state.
Notorious East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres has already
visited Aceh, according to Eddy Juliansyah, a native Acehnese who runs
Laskar's headquarters in Banda Aceh.
Guterres was charged but later acquitted of crimes against humanity for
inciting his East Timorese militia group to kill hundreds of civilians
during the 1999 independence ballot.
Juliansyah yesterday said Laskar had 900 members in Aceh ready to
defend "Indonesian unity", and said they could draw on a 15,000
membership from across Indonesia. But he said the Aceh wing of the militia
group was not armed.
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