Friday, March 5, 2010
Yudhoyono Calls For 'Maximum Effort' Against Aceh Terror Cell
Source: Jakarta Globe


Indonesia's president Friday urged security forces to exercise "maximum effort" against terror groups as 14 suspected militants were charged following their arrest in Aceh province last week.

"The police, intelligence and military forces must show maximum effort to avert terror activity... quick and proper actions are needed," President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters in capital Jakarta.

Police forces continued Friday to search for suspected Islamist militants in a remote area of northern Sumatra island.

"They are not linked with the former GAM (the separatist Aceh armed group), they are a terror cell that has organised themselves neatly," Yudhoyono said.

"They've chosen Aceh as a training ground as it was known as a conflict zone... so they can plot their terror attacks there," he added.

An AFP correspondent Friday witnessed hundreds of paramilitary police and anti-terror squads arriving in Aceh to reinforce the team that had engaged in a firefight with suspected militants a day earlier.

Ten officers were shot and injured during the gunbattle with dozens of militants who were believed to be hiding in a hilly area 55 kilometres east of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital.

Two civilians were killed by stray bullets since the operation began earlier last week, police said

Semi-autonomous Aceh, a deeply Islamic province on the northern tip of Sumatra island, saw a three-decade separatist war that claimed around 15,000 lives before it ended in 2005.

More than 100 heavily armed police raided a training facility earlier last week in a forested part of Aceh Besar district, where around 50 militants were conducting military-style training including the use of firearms.

Four suspects were arrested during that raid. The remaining suspects were arrested in follow-up operations during which one was shot dead while trying to escape, police said.

Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have increased patrols in the Malacca Strait, which borders Aceh province, after Singapore's navy warned of plans by terrorists to attack oil tankers in the strategic waterway. AFP