Trust needed for implementation of Aceh agreement<\/p>\n
Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Aceh peace agreement has been signed and non-local
\nIndonesian Military (TNI) troops and police officers have begun
\nto return to their home bases.<\/p>\n
All of the jailed activists and sympathizers of the Free Aceh
\nMovement (GAM), which for 30 years fought the TNI and the police
\nin an attempt to gain independence for the province, have been
\nreleased in compliance with the Aug. 15 agreement.<\/p>\n
As part of the peace agreement, members of the armed wing of
\nGAM have begun to surrender their weapons and have expressed
\ntheir commitment to working with all Acehnese to rebuild the gas
\nand oil-rich province after the devastating tsunami last December
\nand the end of the armed struggle.<\/p>\n
With the troop withdrawal being one of the key points of the
\nagreement, some 250 European Union and Southeast Asian monitors,
\ngrouped in the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), are overseeing the
\ndeparture of some 25,000 TNI soldiers and 5,000 police officers
\nfrom Aceh. The withdrawal of the troops will take place in four
\nstages, with the whole process to be completed by the end of this
\nyear.<\/p>\n
In addition, the AMM will oversee the disarmament of members
\nof GAM, as well as further steps to create a lasting peace in the
\nprovince, where some 15,000 people died during the three decades
\nof armed conflict.<\/p>\n
Yet, over a month since the signing of the memorandum of
\nunderstanding (MOU) between the government and GAM, the contents
\nof the agreement have been extensively debated and discussed by
\nthe public and legislators at the House of Representatives, who
\nclaim that Indonesia has given up much more than GAM.<\/p>\n
A political researcher at the Indonesian Institute of
\nSciences, Syamsuddin Harris, expressed doubt about GAM's
\n\"sincerity\" regarding the agreement. He was referring to a
\nstatement by GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah on the group's
\nofficial website, www.asnlf.com, that the autonomy given to Aceh
\nin the agreement did not \"delete the dream of promoting Aceh
\nindependence\".<\/p>\n
A legislator on House Commission I for political and military
\naffairs, Yuddy Chrisnandi, demanded honesty from GAM while
\nquoting a point in the agreement stipulating that the group will
\nsurrender 840 weapons as part of the peace deal.<\/p>\n
\"We doubt that the real figure is only 840 ...,\" the
\nlegislator said at a recent hearing.<\/p>\n
Expressions of doubt over the other side's seriousness
\nregarding the implementation of the peace deal are not the
\nmonopoly of the Indonesian camp, and GAM has also questioned
\nIndonesia's commitment to complying with the points in the
\nagreement.<\/p>\n
Malik Mahmud, the self-styled prime minister of the exiled GAM
\nleadership in Sweden, expressed wariness over the disarmament
\nprocess while addressing the signing of the peace deal on Aug. 15
\nin Helsinki, Finland.<\/p>\n
\"According to reports that we have from Aceh, militia members
\nhave recently been saying that after GAM is disarmed, they will
\nkill GAM members,\" Malik said, referring to militia groups
\nallegedly linked to the Indonesian Military.<\/p>\n
A similar concern was expressed by Bakhtiar Abdullah, who
\nexpressed doubt over the police's ability to disarm all of the
\nmilitias allegedly linked to the military.<\/p>\n
\"The Indonesian police cannot be relied upon to decommission
\nthese militias and their weapons.\"<\/p>\n
In addition to these existing doubts on both sides, which will
\nmake implementing the peace agreement more difficult, a recent
\nincident could also threaten the peace deal. A minor skirmish
\nbroke out on Sept. 3, when a group of GAM members reportedly
\nfired on Indonesian soldiers in North Aceh regency, injuring two
\npeople.<\/p>\n
Great expectations have been placed on the Aug. 15 peace
\nagreement. Allowing doubts and confrontational actions to
\ncontinue to occur, however, will make this agreement just the
\nthird failed attempt to bring peace to Aceh. If this were to
\noccur it would be a great loss for Indonesia, which has yet to
\nrecover from numerous political and economic crises.<\/p>\n
Do not allow suspicion to block the peace in Aceh. Building
\ntrust must be the starting point for a lasting peace in the
\nprovince.<\/p>\n
The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/trust-needed-for-implementation-of-aceh-agreement-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }