Acehnese pin high hopes on Helsinki peace deal

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).