Aceh rebel group criticizes peace talk facilitators

Aceh rebel group criticizes peace talk facilitators

Jerry Norton, Reuters/Jakarta

The military wing of rebels in Aceh province has lashed out at
the group trying to facilitate a peace agreement between the
separatists and the government on the eve of talks aimed at
negotiating a settlement.

A third round of Indonesian government-GAM (Free Aceh
Movement) negotiations that began in January is due to start in
Helsinki on Tuesday with the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI)
group acting as facilitators in an effort to end three decades of
bloodshed between the two sides.

A statement from the GAM military command said the Finland-
based CMI described the talks as aiming for a settlement of the
conflict within the framework of special autonomy.

The military command said "GAM is shocked and dismayed" by CMI
references to special autonomy. Special autonomy is the phrase
Jakarta uses to describe proposals it says would grant Aceh a
large degree of freedom but retain ultimate Indonesian
sovereignty.

"GAM has never agreed that the conflict will or should be
resolved within the framework of special autonomy," the military
command said in its statement, dated on Saturday but received by
Reuters on Sunday.

"We want to continue these negotiations, but will not do so if
they are merely a means of forcing us to swallow an unpalatable
meal of fake autonomy and continued military occupation," it
added.

The statement asked that as an indication of good will
"negotiators held in the jails of Java be released" but does not
say what will happen if they are not.

GAM has been fighting a simmering rebellion against the
Indonesian government for nearly 30 years, with at least 12,000
estimated to have died in the fighting, many of them civilians.

Both sides accuse the other of human rights violations and
deliberate killing of non-combatants, with Indonesia's military
taking the brunt of the blame from human rights groups, although
it denies the charges.

During the last round of talks in February, GAM proposed "self
government" in return for dropping its 30-year-old fight for
Acehnese independence. Defining just what that means is expected
to be a key subject of this week's negotiations.

One factor that has helped bring the two sides together was
the Dec. 26 Indian Ocean tsunami, which devastated Aceh and left
nearly 130,000 Indonesians dead and more than 500,000 homeless.

Despite informal declarations of cease-fires from the two
sides since the disaster, there have been sporadic bloody
skirmishes.
GAM's political leaders, the key players in the Helsinki
negotiations, are largely based in Stockholm, Sweden. Some
analysts question the strength of their control over the fighters
in Aceh, a staunchly Muslim province with a long tradition of
opposing central authority.

Full independence for Aceh would mean Indonesia would lose a
province rich in energy resources. It might also set a precedent
for other restless areas of the sprawling archipelago country to
demand similar treatment.