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Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday said that militants being hunted in Aceh were a new terrorist group and not separatists as some believe.

“This group is not from the Free Aceh Movement [GAM], they are real, well-organized terrorists who chose to do their training in Aceh,” Yudhoyono told journalists before chairing a cabinet meeting at the State Palace on political, legal and security affairs.

The GAM disbanded after they signed a peace pact with the government in August 2005, ending almost three decades of bloody separatist conflicts that left over 15,000 people dead. GAM dropped its demand for independence in return for a broad-ranging autonomy for Aceh.

The president called on security forces to do their utmost to root out terrorism from Aceh. “Our people need to feel secure in going about their daily activities,” he said.

Yudhoyono speculated that because Aceh was no longer considered a conflict zone, terrorists may have hoped that their activities would be hidden there. He said that the leader of the group was not from Aceh, as was the case with most of its members.

There has been uncertainty over the identity of the militants, who the police and military have been hunting in Aceh’s mountainous forests since Feb. 22.

Initial reports pointed to regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, but experts said no significant links had been found and suggested instead that they could have been a faction of GAM. Police officials have so far refused to speculate on the identity and affiliation of the group.

Ten police on Thursday night were wounded in a gun battle with dozens of suspected militants hiding in a hilly area 55 kilometers east of Banda Aceh, a police source said.

National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri confirmed that 14 suspects had been captured and flown to Jakarta for questioning since the operation began, while one had been killed. “Around 27 [others] who attacked the police are on the run,” Bambang said.

The suspects in custody face charges of planning terrorist attacks, the police source said.

National Police spokesman Maj. Gen. Edward Aritonang said the suspects had confessed to undergoing paramilitary training, including weapons use and hand-to-hand combat, at the Aceh camp in preparation for a terrorist attack, but they had so far refused to specify the target.

Two civilians have been killed by stray bullets since the operation began, police said.


Additional reporting from AP, AFP