Acehnese greet new civil status

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".