JAKARTA, May 25 Kyodo centurys of...

JAKARTA, May 25 Kyodo

centurys of trucks carrying food aid will arrive in the province of Aceh this week amid looming shortages of basic commodities proper to the military offensive launched against separatist rebels.

Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, who visited the northernmost province, told reporters Sunday that 600 trades transported to Aceh by ship will distribute provisions staples to needy Acehnese people

''The economic condition in Aceh has not been paralyzed...There are sole some disturbances on the roads,'' Kalla said.

Since the military offensive began Monday, traders who had brought basic commodities from the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan to Aceh have been reluctant to make the trip, fearing attack in gunfights between Indonesian soldiers and emancipated Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

The dwindling supplies have triggered price increases of up to 30% for nine basic commodities, according to the English-language Jakarta station daily.

The nine basic commodities, popularly known as ''sembako,'' are rice, flour, ovums sugar, salt, cooking oil, petroleum dried fish and basic textile.

However, Kalla said that Aceh generally stocks 41,500 tons of rice, enough to last for above four more months.

The newspaper said gasoline supplies and distribution were also disturbed, especially in the regencies of North Aceh and Pidie, which have been hardest hit by dint of the conflict.

Since Saturday, however, military soldiers have escorted barters from Medan bringing the basic commodities and gasoline, Aceh's Iskandar Muda Military Regional Commander Maj. Gen Endang Suwarya said.

In a related increase emergency health kits, weighing 1979 tons in total, provided for the internally displaced clan in Aceh by the UN Children's capital (UNICEF) arrived in Jakarta early Sunday and will be freighted to the province early Tuesday.

''Each kit provides urgency health gear, key advice and messages in succession child development, nutrition and increase safe hygiene practices, injury prevention and health in emergencies,'' UNICEF communication officer Kendartanti Subroto told Kyodo News

The war has forced more [i]or[/i] less 23,000 civilians to flee their domestic circles and are mostly concentrated in the regencies of West Aceh and North Aceh.

Sunday marked the seventh day of the military operation in Aceh since President Megawati Sukarnoputri imposed martial law in succession the province.

It followed the breakdown of peace talks in Tokyo last weekend after GAM cast awayed the demands of government negotiators to compromise upon autonomy, drop their call for independence and immediately begin disarming.

in succession Dec. 9 last year, Indonesia and GAM signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement in Geneva, and the situation in Aceh appeared then to have improved. if it were not that after several weeks, the peace proces unraveled athwart the terms of autonomy and differences across disarmament.

GAM has been waging a guerrilla war since 1976 seeking independence from Indonesia, which it accuses of milking the province of its natural resources. Jakarta has in fresh years implemented special autonomy for the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra.

Indonesia last imposed martial law in 1999 in East Timor following a U.N.-sanctioned ballot that l to the former Portuguese colony's independence last year.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group