Indonesia's state intelligence chief warned government officials that foreigners aid workers in the earthquake and tsunami-devastated province of Aceh could be using the opportunity to spy, a report said Saturday. "Of course, the United States government has its interests and it will use this opportunity to closely monitor the geographic conditions of Aceh and the Strait of Malacca," Jakarta Post quoted Syamsir Siregar, the head of the state Intelligence Agency (BIN), was quoted as saying. Siregar said that the government should not overreact even though the U.S. and Australia wanted to deploy military personnel in the Malacca Straits, a busy shipping lane near the island of Sumatra, for a long time. "We should not be extremely suspicious of their presence (in Aceh)," the intelligence chief told officials at a hearing with the House of Representatives' commission for defense and intelligence affairs, attended by Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono and Indonesian Military (TNI) chief General Endriartono Sutarto. "We need their practical support to handle the catastrophe aftermath," Siregar added. Siregar also said the BIN had obtained the names and data of foreign volunteers working in Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, and blamed immigration officials for allowing a banned U.S. journalist into the country after violating immigration in 2003. Fighting between the military and the rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has continued, however, with the military saying this week they had killed about 120 rebels in the last two weeks, despite declaring a ceasefire after the disaster.
