Fears over food as Aceh rebels fight on

BANDA ACEH - Indonesian forces sought to reassure frightened civilians in Aceh yesterday, providing escorts for buses as traders worried that insecurity on the roads was leading to food shortages.

Police have begun protecting both school buses and normal buses in the districts of Bireun and Pidie on the north coast of Aceh, scenes of some of the heaviest fighting in the province since Government forces launched an offensive against separatist rebels last Monday.

Scores of people have been killed in Indonesia's westernmost province since martial law was declared and an offensive launched after a five-month peace agreement collapsed.

Officials said at least 23,000 civilians have fled their homes and the United Nations said basic health services had collapsed in some places.

Bus and truck operators said vehicles had been attacked. Representatives of truck operators met Governor Abdullah Puteh on Saturday to seek protection for those bringing in basic commodities. Puteh said authorities were examining all threats.

Traders and residents in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh fretted about shortages of vegetables, cooking oil, milk powder and cigarettes, saying some prices were rocketing.

They said the military needed to start escorting convoys.

"No vehicles want to come here, it's just not safe on the roads," said trader M. Kafim, in the main produce market behind a sprawling black and white mosque that dominates the city centre.

But traders said supplies of the staple rice were not affected, nor had the commodity risen in price.

The Indonesian Red Cross said on Saturday it had removed about 80 bodies from conflict areas in Aceh, where more than 10,000 people have been killed in decades of conflict.

Military counts of total dead run to more than 60, while Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels list more than 100 dead, many civilians.

Indonesia's military said it was doing its utmost to avoid causing civilian deaths in its biggest offensive in decades.

The military also said rebels were trying to blend in with the civilian population to escape the offensive. To help stop that, new identification cards will be issued in the province.

The Government has 45,000 troops and police pitted against about 5000 GAM fighters, and is building up its forces.

Jakarta hopes for victory within six months, but the rebels have historically taken full advantage of Aceh's jungle-clad terrain to survive.

A victory by Aceh rebels over Government troops would result in a "disastrous security situation" in the region, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said yesterday.

Downer told ABC television that Canberra did not support GAM in its bid for independence from Indonesia.

"Australia's position is to support the territorial integrity of Indonesia. Obviously we would prefer a negotiated settlement."

Downer said Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia, David Ritchie, discussed Aceh with Indonesian ministers on Friday. He said Ritchie was told Indonesia had left the door open for negotiations with the rebels.

"Now it is up to GAM to go to the Indonesians and say they will hand down their weapons and return to the negotiating table, and the Indonesians will accept that," said Downer.

"My concern is that if Indonesia as a state gradually broke up, if you started to abandon the colonial boundaries, the concept of the Dutch East Indies becoming the Republic of Indonesia, it would set in place a chain reaction."

Downer said such a development would result in a "disastrous security situation in Southeast Asia".

"It would set people against people in the region, possibly having quite direct international implications."

While it might not directly involve Australia, a break up would result in "us having a fundamentally unstable region just to our north".

"We have enough problems in the region without compounding them by supporting the dissolution of Indonesia," he said.

- REUTERS