Aceh rebel leader vows to fight Indonesia 'forever'

12.00pm - By PETER STARCK

STOCKHOLM - The leader of separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province said his forces could fight indefinitety to resist rule by Jakarta and accused the Indonesian military of seeking to wipe out the Acehnese.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri gave the go-ahead for war against the rebels after weekend peace talks with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Tokyo failed. She blamed GAM's refusal to give up its fight for independence.

Rebel leader Mahmood Malik said his supporters in the oil and gas rich province would go on fighting "forever, as (long as) Acehnese exist".

"We have been fighting Indonesia for 27 years... we are confident that we will be able to resist them," Malik said on returning to Sweden, where he lives in exile, from Japan.

"The whole population of Aceh, able men and women, will resist the aggression," Malik told Reuters in an interview.

"(The Indonesian military) will go after the population of Aceh by genocide... they will try to massacre the people," he said.

Malik declined to put a number on Aceh's armed rebels - estimated by analysts at around 5000 against more than 45,000 Indonesian troops and police deployed in the staunchly Muslim province on the northern tip of Sumatra.

He said the rebels knew how to live off natural food resources in Aceh's jungle and were familiar with the mountainous terrain.

"We have long experience. We have become more and more sophisticated in this guerrilla warfare," Malik said.

Weapons were no problem either. "We bought from some of their soldiers who need money," he said with a hearty laugh.

Malik said GAM trusted the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre, which in December brokered a peace deal that collapsed in Tokyo, to find a way to revive negotiations.

But any accord must not include continued exploitation by Indonesia of Aceh's natural wealth, Malik said.

"We have to claim back what they have stolen from us. They are the robbers and we have to demand back our properties that they have taken, plus interest," he said.

The peace agreement was beset by bickering and mistrust over the issue of independence, which GAM has long demanded but Indonesia refuses to give. The deal did not address this in detail, focusing more on trying to halt the fighting.

GAM has said it was ready to resume one of Asia's longest-running separatist wars in which 10,000 people have been killed.

- REUTERS