Acehnese greet new civil status
Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
Acehnese are hopeful that the government's lifting of the civil emergency status in the province on Wednesday will mean more peace in the conflict-ridden area, even if many remain unsure precisely how the change will affect their lives.
The move came a week before a fourth round of peace talks with rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and almost five months after the province was devastated by a huge earthquake and tsunami.
The change does not involve any reductions of Indonesian Military (TNI) troops in the area.
Minister of Information Sofyan Djalil, who will be one of the government's key negotiators at the next round of peace talks from May 26-31 in Helsinki, said the state of civil emergency was lifted after midnight on Tuesday.
"The government has a very strong will to find a peaceful solution (to Aceh). The government has already lowered the status from civil emergency to normal status," Sofyan told Reuters in Jakarta.
In its effort to try to crush separatist rebels active in the province, the government imposed martial law in May 2003. That status was later downgraded to a state of civil emergency in 2004.
While many Acehnese are unsure of what the change will actually entail, all spoken to hoped things would get better.
Azhar, 20-year-old resident of Caleue village in Pidie, hoped the new status would improve the quality of life for the Acehnese.
The tense security situation in his home village meant he had to move to Banda Aceh to sell food, he said.
"People in Banda Aceh didn't really feel (the effect of) the emergency status, but villagers like me suffered a great deal." When he lived in Pidie, he repeatedly received harsh treatment from the Indonesian Military (TNI), he said.
"If they don't find GAM (Free Aceh Movement) rebels, people (in the area) will feel the consequences."
With the change of status, he hoped there would be no more violence. "Let us, the people, live in peace," he said.
The news was greeted with mixed emotions by Nurul Fikri, a 35- year-old from Lam Manyang village in Peukan Pada, Aceh Besar.
She hoped that with the new status, she could return to her agricultural work in the highlands.
During the emergency status, she said, the residents were forced to neglect our plantations in the highlands.
The TNI had forbid civilians from working there because they said it was too dangerous, she said.
Sulaiman, a Banda Aceh resident who works as a pedicab driver, hoped the new status would bring in more relief aid for tsunami victims in the province.
For the town's residents, many of whom were still rebuilding their lives, any change in status was less relevant than their more immediate problems, he said.
Sulaiman said the people still focused more on "refugee issues -- no assistance to get on with their lives," rather than politics.
An anticorruption activist, Akhiruddil, welcomed the lifting of the emergency, saying it raised expectations that public spaces, previously off-limits, could be opened again.
"When we want to hold a discussion, we (hopefully) won't need to ask for a permit and when we want to stage a protest, we won't be afraid of being arrested," he said.
Asked what he thought about the government lifting the emergency status without reducing the TNI troops in the area, he asked the TNI to: "please conduct operations (only) in conflict- prone areas".