Acehnese pray for peace ahead of Helsinki talks
Nani Afrida and Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
Vendors outside the Baiturrahman mosque are doing brisk business, selling handmade peci (hats for male Muslims), which they say many foreign volunteers and soldiers have bought up in bulk.
The vendors are just one sign of life returning to the capital of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. Nevertheless, Sunday provided another occasion to commemorate the December tsunami three months on, an earlier event being the mass prayer last Monday on the devastated Ule Lheue Beach.
Imam T. Nurul Zahri led the congregation in the city's landmark mosque, praying for "resilience", that God would spare the Acehnese from any more suffering, and that this week's scheduled talks in Helsinki, Finland, would help bring them peace after decades of being caught in between the warring parties of government soldiers and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Later on, sobs were heard through the loudspeaker, making it difficult to hear the prayer being read by another man. He spoke of the prevailing sense of helplessness among survivors in failing to bury thousands of loved ones properly, and asked God for forgiveness for the thousands who "we didn't know who would pick them up" and were later buried in mass graves.
In Banda Aceh alone, it is estimated that half of the town's original population of some 250,000 is missing. In the congregation, Hafsah said she lost 100 family members -- none of whom she managed to find, let alone bury.
After the prayers, a representative of some 600 mullahs conveyed the results of a two-day discussion since Friday, which recommended that the government blueprint for Aceh's reconstruction be improved to reflect the spirit of syariah and the role of ulema, and also appealed to all sides to accept the results of the Helsinki talks.
At the following press conference, T. Ibrahim Bardan, who chairs the association of Islamic school (dayah) leaders in the province said, "we hope the talks will not be protracted, the people are tired".
On their criticism of the blueprint, the mullahs acknowledged they had not read and discussed all 12 chapters of the plan, saying they had not had access it to, other than from explanations provided by authorities in their talks at Syiah Kuala University campus.
Among their 11 recommendations are that the ulema need to be more involved in decision-making regarding plans for Aceh's reconstruction, and that government bodies and non-governmental organizations need to consult the ulema in their plans.
"That's because people more often address their questions to ulema rather than to the authorities," T. Faisal Ali, who heads the association of Islamic scholars, Rabithah Taliban, said.
"This is also in line with the 1999 law on Aceh's autonomy, which states that all policies regarding Aceh must be deliberated with the ulema," he said.
Particular attention was given to people's sense of security. "We need a special government regulation to further establish the basic legal rights of the Acehnese," Faisal said.
Many people are not aware of their rights as citizens, he said, adding that they often felt afraid to help people in need, such as if they saw the victim of a shooting. "Frequently people who want to help a victim are accused of siding with the group that is associated with the victim," he said.
On another recommendation that female mullahs be considered as on a par with male mullahs, a participant in the earlier prayers at the mosque said she was not too sure of the issue.
"But if a woman mullah is the one reading the prayers at a gathering, everyone around her is blessed. That is the greatness of a woman mullah," Hafsah said.