Military demands that GAM no longer carry weapons<\/p>\n
Tiarma Siboro and Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Military (TNI) has called on the Aceh foreign
\npeace monitoring team to take anticipatory measures to prevent
\nthe current peace process between the government and the Free
\nAceh Movement (GAM) from faltering, including banning former
\nrebels from bearing weapons in public.<\/p>\n
TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said on Monday that the
\nAceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) should be responsible for ensuring
\nthat there were no GAM weapons being used until after they were
\nall surrendered, as was agreed in the recently signed Memorandum
\nof Understanding (MOU) between GAM and the government.<\/p>\n
\"The AMM also must clearly detail the implementation of all
\nitems in the MOU to avoid confrontations in the field,
\nparticularly on the use and carrying of weapons by GAM members,\"
\nhe said at TNI headquarters in Cilangkap.<\/p>\n
Endriartono was responding to the first confirmed exchange of
\nfire involving members of GAM and TNI on Sunday in the hills near
\na village in Indrapuri district, Aceh Besar.<\/p>\n
\"Some incidents that have taken place since the signing of the
\nMOU were triggered by misunderstandings on the part of GAM
\nmembers who are opposed to the policies of their leaders to end
\nthe conflict,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Endriartono said GAM members should no longer be allowed to
\ncarry weapons unless they were taking them in for collection at
\nTNI or police posts, or to the local administration.<\/p>\n
He added that the TNI would be taking defensive rather than
\noffensive postures during the disarmament period, but quickly
\nadded that retaliating to attacks by rebels remained a likely
\noption to minimize casualties.<\/p>\n
The MOU rules that GAM will demobilize its 3,000 guerrillas
\nand decommission of all kinds of armament in four stages,
\nstarting from Sept. 15 through Dec. 31 with the assistance of
\nAMM.<\/p>\n
\"It needs to be emphasized that there should no longer be any
\nweapons in the community after the whole decommissioning process
\nends. Besides surrendering 840 standard arms, GAM must also
\nsurrender all hand-made arms that they have also used,\"
\nEndriartono said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, State Minister of Communications and Information
\nSofyan Djalil said Sunday's incident was still within the bounds
\nof toleration, especially after almost 30 years of armed conflict
\nin Aceh.<\/p>\n
\"It's understandable ... there's no way that this MOU can work
\nout in just one night. The MOU is only 15 days old. Besides, the
\nincident wasn't significant because they were firing upward and
\nthere were no casualties,\" he said on the sidelines of the sixth
\nAsian-European Editors Forum here.<\/p>\n
However, Sofyan added, the government and GAM had agreed to
\ntry to reduce tensions between themselves, especially after the
\nsigning of the MOU and during the transition period.<\/p>\n
\"So that all the small snags are eliminated and the big ones
\nare reduced in order to create a conducive situation in the
\nfield,\" he said, adding that AMM was not yet in full swing in
\ncarrying out its task in monitoring the situation and the
\nimplementation of the peace deal.<\/p>",
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