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Indonesia's Army Declares War Against Aceh Separatist Rebels
Indonesia's Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu Wednesday declared war against Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels.
"We have prepared our (Kostrad) troops to fight not the people, but only enemies of the state. GAM is an enemy of the state. We must quell them all," Ryacudu said after presiding over the commemoration of Kostrad's 40th anniversary at the command's Airborne brigade headquarters in South Jakarta.
The three-star general said that he was ready to dispatch his troops to the troubled province any time the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief instructed him to.
He admitted to have already sent two battalions of Kostrad troops there.
"The fact is my troops are always ready to leave for Aceh," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post Thursday as saying.
Currently, the TNI deploys some 30,000 troops in the province.
Ryacudu stressed that it was GAM and not the (Acehnese) people who rejected the presence of the Indonesian military there.
GAM, a main separatist group in Aceh, has been fighting for a free Islamic state since the mid-1970s. Thousands of people have been killed during the clashes between government troops and the Acehnese rebels.
Violences continued in the province this month despite a cease- fire agreement between the Indonesian government and the GAM.
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