Banda Aceh – The Emergency Military Commander in Aceh, Major General Endang Suwarya, has said that they are waiting to see what the government’s decision will be on foreign observers in the 2004 election in Aceh.

According to the two star general, who is also the head of the Iskandarmuda military command, to date they have not received any special instructions on foreign observers coming to Aceh. “I’ve only seen and read [about it] in the newspapers”, he said on Friday.

It has been said that if there are indeed no regulations issued on the matter, foreign observers who arrive for the elections on April 5 will not be given permission to enter Aceh. “Every single foreign national who enters Aceh, whether they be a journalist, be from a non-government organisation or an observer, all of them must obtain permission [beforehand]. If they are found to have entered without permission, they will definitely be deported from Aceh”, Suwarya was reported as saying by the newspaper Serambi Indonesia on Saturday February 14.

The reason was he added, that foreign nationals who arrive in Aceh causes a great deal of problems for security forces. “Our problem is that we must provide security. They come to Aceh without reporting [to the military first], and then they are taken hostage by GAM [the Free Aceh Movement]. We hope that this will not happen again. What is clear is that the arrival of foreign nationals in Aceh causes a great deal of problems. The other side of the coin is that we do not trust them at all”, explained Suwarya.

When asked what will happen if an instruction on foreign observers is issued by the central government, the Iskandarmuda commander said “This will be arranged later. If indeed there is a policy [decision] from the central [government] on foreign observers, then foreign observers will be restricted, in terms of their security, [but] they mustn’t stir up trouble here”.

As reported previously, at a cabinet session on Thursday which was chaired by President Megawati Sukarnoputri, it was decided that Aceh would be open to foreign observers, but they would still to be regulated. “The principal is, to maintain transparency and accountability. The elections throughout Indonesia, including Aceh, are open to foreign observers”, said the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, following the cabinet session at the State Secretariat in Jakarta (Serambi Indonesia).

[Translated by James Balowski.]