Acehnese pin high hopes on Helsinki peace deal
Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Aceh Besar
With the signing of the Helsinki peace deal just a few days away, the Acehnese people expressed support on Wednesday for the peace process and the hope that it would produce lasting peace in the province.
"We welcome the efforts by the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to produce a peace deal that will bring a sustainable peace to Aceh," said Rita, a student at the Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh.
She further expressed the hope that the peace deal would be successfully implemented in the field so that there would be no more violence and deaths.
"Peace will improve the state of education in Aceh," Rita was quoted as saying by Antara.
"If the peace is really signed and honestly implemented, I will return home to see my family," Rahmat, a senior high school student whose parents home is located in Aceh Jaya regency, said on the same day.
Other Banda Aceh residents hoped that the peace deal to be signed in Helsinki would not go the same way as similar peace agreements in the past, such as the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) and the Humanitarian Pause of a few years ago.
Aceh residents are tired of decades of bloody conflict between the Indonesian Military and GAM, which date back to the 1970s. "We really hope that the peace deal this time will work," said Husnul, a resident of Aceh Besar regency.
Indrapuri district, Aceh besar regency, where Husnul lives, was one of the "peace zone" that were declared when the CoHA was implemented in 2003.
However, the area's status as a peace zone was short-lived after both the Indonesian Military and GAM accused each other of breaching the agreement and being responsible for the resumption of the conflict.
He was upbeat that if the dream of lasting peace came true, the area would prosper economically. The economy had been in the doldrums since the conflict between the Indonesian Military and GAM intensified in 2001. He said that the peace deal would put the economy back on track.
"The peace deal will encourage farmers to return to their fields and plantations, and help get the wheels of the economy moving again. Currently, they are afraid to go out into their fields or plantations for fear of being caught in the middle between GAM and the military," he said. Husnul said that he had a five-hectare plantation but had abandoned it five years ago when the war between GAM and the military intensified.
As people in the Aceh capital waited eagerly for the peace deal to become a reality, others on remote islands of the coast of Aceh said that they new little about the deal.
"I heard that a peace deal would be signed on August 15, but I know nothing about it," said Yusrizal, a youth living on Beras Island, Aceh besar regency.
"I heard about it on the radio but I haven't really being following the story. We are very busy here doing our work," said Muhammad, who lost two children to the tsunami last year.
The island is some 1.5 hours by boat from Banda Aceh, and was devastated by the tsunami disaster. But life began returning to normal after dozens of houses were built a few weeks ago by a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).