Indonesia's new military leader yesterday announced the withdrawal of riot troops from the western province of Aceh, where an armed independence movement has been involved in escalating clashes with government soldiers.
The announcement, made by Admiral Widodo after the first meeting of President Abdurrahman Wahid's cabinet in Jakarta, confirms a new and more moderate approach to Indonesia's festering separatist crisis following the debacle of East Timor.
By abandoning its hard-line tactics in the rebellious province of Aceh, Indonesia's new leadership also appears bent on curtailing the power of the military, whose excesses in East Timor threatened Jakarta with international isolation and financial and economic ruin.
"A security approach cannot solve the problems in Aceh," said Admiral Widodo, who succeeded Gen Wiranto as head of the armed forces last month. He told reporters he would no longer try to end the rebellion in the strongly Muslim province with military might and would withdraw all extra troops sent in to quell the independence movement.
After the loss of East Timor, which voted for independence on August 30th, Aceh and the province of Irian Jaya pose the gravest threats to Indonesian unity.
Both regions, at opposite ends of the huge archipelago of over 200 million people, are demanding referendums on their future status. They see the army as weakened and disgraced by its scorched earth tactics in East Timor. Many analysts believe those tactics were a warning to other independence movements in Indonesia which backfired.
President Wahid held a secret meeting with leaders of the Aceh independence movement (GAM) on Sunday, an event of great historic significance which was kept hidden from the media until yesterday.
It was the first meeting between an Indonesian head of government and pro-independence leaders since Aceh lost its status as an independent Islamic republic in 1961 and was incorporated into Indonesia.
Since armed resistance began in 1989 almost 900 people have been killed in Aceh, according to the military. Many leading Aceh activists are in exile in Malaysia and Sweden. The new President said after the meeting that he would order an investigation into human rights abuses in the province, in particular the killing by troops of 51 people in the area of Beutong Ateuh in July.
But he also reiterated that he would not let Aceh separate from Indonesia and angered human rights activists by asserting that killings in Aceh were being carried out not by the army but by people posing as Indonesian soldiers.
Since Sunday's secret meeting the violence has continued, if not worsened. At least 22 people were seriously injured in the coastal town of Meulaboh on Tuesday afternoon when troops opened fire on thousands of pro-independence demonstrators, according to Zahrial, a correspondent of the town's daily newspaper.
He said the protesters had burned the local legislative council building after the 45 legislators had left, ignoring their demand for a meeting, and the victims were shot trying to force their way into a military compound. The army said one person was hit by gunfire. The rally was organised by the Taliban student group which has campaigned peacefully during the last two months for a referendum on Aceh's future.
A soldier was shot dead in Aceh on Monday and on Tuesday two other soldiers suffered gunshot wounds during an ambush by an unidentified armed group on a military convoy on its way to the town of Bireuen, according to the Indonesian news agency.
The rebellion in Aceh has been fuelled by military repression, economic exploitation and a culturally different version of Islam from that of the rest of Indonesia.
The head of international forces in East Timor yesterday said at least 80,000 displaced East Timorese had yet to be accounted for, as new grisly evidence of atrocities came to light. "There is a discrepancy, we feel, of about 80,000. Are these in the hills or just unlocated? We are not sure," Maj Gen Peter Cosgrove told a media briefing in Dili.
He said there were still between 220,000 and 250,000 displaced people in West Timor.