Acehnese pray for peace ahead of dialog

Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Jakarta

Nearly 2,000 Acehnese gathered and prayed on Sunday for peace, ahead of the next set of talks between the government and the Aceh Separatist Movement (GAM).

More than 1,000 people from all walks of life flocked to the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, while 700 others packed an open field in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, to take part in the same prayer.

Iskandar Muda Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djali Yusuf was among the top provincial figures joining the mass prayer.

The local administration organized the prayers, which were aimed at asking for the success of the planned dialog between the government and GAM in Geneva sometime next week.

"We are all hoping for peace in Aceh and that the conflict here ends as soon as possible," Djali said, adding that he called on all Acehnese to pray for peace.

No specific date has been set for the upcoming round of negotiations, which are a follow-up to the last set of talks in May. Both the government and GAM were scheduled to restart the dialog in July.

After being in limbo for months, both sides gave a strong signal to engage in another dialog by early next month and they are set to agree on a cessation of hostility.

One of the contentious issues left for negotiation is the possibility of including foreigners, who will form an independent monitoring team to ensure a halt to the violence in the province.

Separately, various groups in the province rallied on Sunday to demand that foreigners be included on the independent monitoring team. They said noted foreigners would guarantee the team's independence.

They also asked both soldiers from GAM and the military to go back to their barracks to ensure peace.

Jakarta, although agreeing to establish a monitoring team, has refused to go into detail on whether it would support the inclusion of foreigners as members of the team.

Jakarta top negotiator Wiryono Sastrohandoyo said on Sunday that he was waiting for an order to leave for Geneva for the peace talks.

"The government has said that the dialog is going to occur early next month at the latest and almost 90 percent of the items to be negotiated have been discussed," Wiryono told The Jakarta Post.

He underlined that the negotiation process would live up to Jakarta's expectations, with the upcoming dialog to be aimed at reaching an agreement to end the hostility.

But Wiryono refused to go into detail, saying that it would jeopardize the negotiation process.

After the Special Autonomy Law for Aceh was agreed on in May of this year, the government has aimed to secure a deal to end all violence in the province.

Wiryono once said that after all hostility had ceased, both sides were expected to move to an all-inclusive dialog for all Acehnese, which would be followed by an agreement on a direct gubernatorial election by 2004.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed optimism that the peace agreement would be signed in the coming days, saying that both sides had agreed on most points on the draft.

Jakarta has been engaged in peace talks with GAM since early 2000 to end the secessionist movement that started in 1976. Thousands of people, mostly civilians, have been killed in armed clashes between security troops and GAM.

The government has set a deadline for GAM to return to the negotiation table by the end of the Muslim fasting month of December, or else a harsher crackdown would be launched against the separatist rebels.