Aceh issue draws MPR's attention

JAKARTA (JP): The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) admitted on Wednesday that concrete steps were imperative to ease the rising demand for a self-determination referendum in Aceh.

But the law-making body failed to agree on a special decree concerning the troubled province, citing lack of time.

The Ad Hoc Committee II members received a 17-strong Acehnese delegation who requested that the Assembly issue a decree which gives special autonomy to the province.

The delegation leader Ahmad Farhan Hamid told the legislators that the MPR should offer the natural resources-rich province special autonomy as compensation for the political and economic injustice the Acehnese people have experienced for decades.

"Concrete action must be taken here and now. You should not blame us if the Acehnese people decide to separate from Indonesia.

"I am not threatening, but the situation in Aceh is critical since most people, including ulemas (Muslim clerics) and rebel groups, are pressurizing for a referendum in the province," he said.

Hasballah M. Saad, a native Acehnese legislator from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said the Acehnese people were very disappointed with the government's failure to stop the bloodshed in the province, to investigate human rights abuses blamed on the Indonesian Military (TNI) and to put right the economic injustices they have suffered.

"It will be too late if nothing is done until next year, because the Acehnese people can be patient no longer," Hasballah said.

All factions in the committee, which was deliberating the draft decree on the presidential election, were of the same opinion that the escalating tension and increasing separatist demands were serious, and prompt action was needed to calm the situation in the troubled province.

Hundreds of people have been killed since the TNI halted a decade of military operations to crack down on separatist movements in August last year.

"The Aceh issue is serious, and a MPR decree should be made to recommend the next government takes concrete actions to seek a peaceful solution to all problems in the province," Askin of the Reform faction said.

Sabam Sirait, who presided over the meeting, said it was impossible for the committee, which ended on Wednesday, to draw up a draft decree on Aceh that soon.

"All ad hoc committees will report the results of their work to the Assembly Working Committee on Thursday, only hours before the plenary MPR session," he said.

The subcommittee agreed to discuss further the Aceh issue in December to let factions concentrate on the presidential election and collect more information on the latest developments in the province.

East Timor

On East Timor, the Ad Hoc Committee II was able to offer two alternatives to the decree which endorses the separation of the territory from Indonesia.

The first option stipulates that the Assembly "basically can accept" the result of the Aug. 30 popular consultation, which saw 78.5 percent of voters reject Indonesia's wide-ranging autonomy offer. But the endorsement will be made in the MPR annual session or in an extraordinary session within the period from 1999 to 2004.

Despite the acceptance, the MPR will ask the president to investigate reports on irregularities allegedly committed by the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), and to demand that Portugal amends an article in its constitution which places East Timor under its jurisdiction.

The president should also be asked to delay the transfer of administration to the UN until these conditions are fulfilled. This is in order to protect the East Timorese from all the consequences of the ballot and to maintain the country's unity.

Although the 1978 decree which declares East Timor status as the country's 27th province will be revoked, the committee said the government could not annul awards given to servicemen sent to the territory.

The second alternative proposes more or less the same as the first.

It differs only in that it recommends that the President demand talks with the UN on allegations of irregularities linked to UNAMET. The government will have to seek diplomatic cooperation with Portugal to give up East Timor.

According to the second option, East Timor's separation from Indonesia must comply with the laws currently in effect.

Ad hoc committee chairman Sabam said the two proposals would be left to the MPR Working Committee to decide on Thursday.

The Reform faction, National Awakening faction, interest group faction, Golkar Reform faction and United Development faction have all thrown their weight behind the second alternative.

The Indonesian Democratic of Struggle faction said both options should be combined, saying each of them contains deficiencies.

Sabam said if the Working Committee failed to decide, the draft decree on East Timor will be up to the Assembly to draft. (rms)