Aceh peace talks set for Switzerland this month

Aceh peace talks set for Switzerland this month

GENEVA (Reuters): The Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will hold further peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 27-28, organizers said on Thursday.

But a spokesman for the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, which serves as mediator, declined to say whether Anthony Zinni, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, would take part as he did in the previous round last February.

"There will be some international advisors, but we can't say whom they are," spokesman Andy Andrea said.

Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hasan Wirajuda has led previous delegations to the talks, meeting with exiled members of GAM at a secret location near Geneva.

Aceh province, which accounts for one-fifth of Indonesia's oil and gas exports, is home to four million people.

Five GAM negotiators from Aceh were scheduled to leave for Geneva this week. The five were Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, Tengku Muhammad Usman, Ammi Ahmad Marzuki, Amdi Hamdani and Teuku Kamaruzzaman.

In Banda Aceh, Tiba said on Wednesday that his team would propose a cease-fire without reservations, to end the conflict, while the military insisted that the restoration of security would continue.

The two sides, which have held six rounds of talks since 1999, agreed last February to meet again after consultations.

Hassan said in Jakarta on Wednesday that Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would soon visit Sweden, where most exiled GAM leaders reside, to seek help in resolving the decades-old conflict.

Part of the idea was for the Swedes to convey a "strong message" to the exiled leaders to accept a special autonomy package for Aceh and to give up their demands for independence, according to the minister.

The autonomy package, approved by the Indonesian government last year, gives the Acehnese more autonomy in their own internal affairs and a greater share of the province's wealth.

The talks with the Swedish government, expected within days, appear to mark Indonesia's growing willingness to accept foreign participation in efforts to halt fighting that has claimed thousands of lives in the country's westernmost province.