JAKARTA, 20 May 2003 - Indonesian newspapers are broadly pessimistic about the impact of martial law in Aceh province, with some deploring the decision and others seeing it as the least worst option.
Pikiran Rakyat is sure that the separatist Free Aceh Movement will resist the Indonesian army in a full-scale war. "The Free Aceh Movement, as can be seen from its determination, will fight back. In its eyes the government of the Republic of Indonesia is a coloniser." The main victims of the war will be the Acehnese themselves, Pikiran Rakyat concludes.
The Jawa Pos agrees that martial law is a declaration of war on the Free Aceh Movement, and that it was taken against the advice of many commentators. Columnist Rasyid R. Sulaiman sees no hope of ending the Aceh conflict by military means.
"So far Indonesia has had four presidents with different strategies to defeat the Free Aceh Movement. But the result is that the Free Aceh Movement grows stronger and aims to liberate Aceh. The Free Aceh Movement has not been paralysed," he writes in Media Indonesia.
President vulnerable
Media Indonesia sees danger for the civilian government of President Megawati in the martial law decree. "The question is what now differentiates Megawati's decision from the Military Operations Areas during the New Order regime?" it asks, referring to the free hand given to the military in Indonesia's recalcitrant periphery during the Suharto dictatorship.
Lecturer Anton Tabah thinks the army might be able to re-establish order, but that it ought to be a police operation. "Such operations will complicate the president's accountability," he writes with reference to military action under martial law in Media Indonesia.
The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association also warns President Megawati that she is wandering into Suharto territory: "Violence, especially when committed by the Indonesian military, has never been a solution to Aceh's problems but has caused many victims among the Acehnese," it says in the Detik newspaper.
No choice
Kedaulatan Rakyat supports martial law as a "realistic measure to avoid greater losses", and Fajar says it cannot oppose the measure given the collapse of peace talks. Sinar Harapan thinks that the military operation will differ from those of the past by not being clandestine.
"The Indonesian National Military Forces do not fight secretly any more. Everything is open," it writes, adding that the failed peace talks with the Free Aceh Movement in Tokyo and the parliamentary hearings on Aceh were also open. Suara Pembaruan agrees that martial law is necessary, but warns that alone it will not be enough to solve the problem.
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