CIAO DATE: 05/04

Aceh: Slim Chance for Peace

March 27, 2002

International Crisis Group

Abstract

IndonesiaÕs efforts to end the separatist rebellion in Aceh entered a new phase in April 2001 with the launching of a military offensive against the guerrillas of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Three months later, the government passed a law conferring Òspecial autonomyÓ, or limited selfgovernment, on the province. This briefing paper charts recent events in Aceh, updating two ICG reports in 2001 which analysed these two strands of Indonesian policy: military force and the offer of autonomy.

The military offensive has done some damage to GAM but the guerrillas do not seem close to defeat. The majority of the warÕs victims are civilians and both sides are thought to have committed atrocities in the last year, including mass murder. One of the worst periods of violence was in the district of Central Aceh in mid-2001, during which hundreds of people were killed by GAM, the military or local militias.

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