Acehnese demand political rights
Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh
At least eight students in the province of Aceh went on a hunger strike on Monday to demand freedom of political expression, including campaigns for declaring the province's independence.
The protesters from Students' Solidarity for the People (SMUR) said the four-month-old peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had stifled the public's freedom to express themselves politically.
Eight of the protesters said they would continue their hunger strike until the peace monitoring body, the Joint Security Committee (JSC), ensured Acehnese could freely express their political views.
"We want a guarantee of our political rights, to campaign for autonomy as well as for independence," said Muslim, the spokesman at SMUR, which staged the rally inside the JSC office in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
The committee comprises representatives from the Indonesian government, GAM and Swiss-based non-governmental organization the Henry Dunant Centre (HDC), which has facilitated the peace talks for two years.
GAM has been fighting for independence in the natural resource -rich province since 1976. Some 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed during the war with government forces.
Fighting abated following the signing of the peace agreement in December last year.
The Cessation of Hostilities Agreement provides few clues on building the political future of Aceh.
Instead, the accord leaves that choice to the people of Aceh, under a clause that calls for elections.
Indonesia and GAM remain at odds over whether independence is part of that option. Pro-independence Acehnese consider the election as a right to self determination.
But the government insists that the entire peace accord rests with GAM's acceptance of the special autonomy status it has given to Aceh.
Muslim said the JSC should explain the peace agreement to the people, pointing to a clause in the agreement that guaranties freedom of political expression.
He did not say how the government or GAM had stifled Acehnese political rights since the agreement, but SMUR also demanded that police release all political prisoners.
Earlier on Monday, a crowd of around 500 protesters from the Joint Action of Acehnese Civil Society (JSACS) turned out before the JSC office demanding the release of political activist Muhammad Nazar who chairs a presidium advocating a referendum for Aceh. They said he was arrested last month.