Acehnese to meet to find a solution

JAKARTA (JP): The Aceh provincial administration will host an unprecedented meeting of all concerned groups in the province by the end of the month.

Spokesman for the province authorities, Teuku Pribadi, said in Banda Aceh on Sunday, that the purpose of the get-together was to find a better solution for the troubled province, which has experienced incessant clashes during the past decade.

Pribadi said conflicting parties and representatives of Acehnese people in exile, including Tengku Hasan Muhammad Tiro, leader of the Acehnese resistance overseas, would be invited to the meeting.

"It won't be a reconciliation meeting, because Acehnese people are not in conflict but were facing security problems, especially during the military operations between 1989 and 1998," Pribadi told Antara.

At least 1,700 Acehnese people were killed in military operations to quell the Free Aceh separatist movement in the province.

Deaths continue to occur as a result of clashes between the military and separatist rebels, despite the lifting of Aceh's status as a military operation zone in June last year and the subsequent withdrawal of combat troops from the province.

Pribadi said that the meeting was scheduled to take place in the third week of March and would last five days. Local ulemas, activists of nongovernmental organizations, students, traditional leaders and government officials are also expected to attend.

Pribadi said it was difficult to invite Hasan Tiro -- believed to live in Sweden -- because no one in Aceh has personal contact with him.

"He should let us know his whereabouts to enable us to send him an invitation to the meeting," Pribadi said.

Governor Syamsuddin said that the province had allocated Rp 100 million from its 1999/2000 budget to finance the meeting.

Acehnese students have repeatedly demanded a self- determination referendum, after they found the government had failed to investigate atrocities during military operations and recent killings in several parts of the country's westernmost province.

Manhunt

Meanwhile, authorities in Banda Aceh have stepped up the manhunt for 36 inmates of Sigli Penitentiary in Pidie district, who managed to escape with two firearms on Sunday.

Ngatino Achmadi, the Sigli Penitentiary warden, said that the prisoners escaped at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday after disguising themselves as guards.

Antara news agency reported that the mass breakout began when one of the inmates, Herman -- serving 18 months for involvement in a marijuana trafficking case -- asked for timeout for evening prayers.

After leaving his cell, Herman went to the guard house where he threatened the chief guard, Jufry, with a knife.

After tying Jufry up, Herman freed 23 other inmates who then overwhelmed four other guards.

The prisoners locked all the guards in an empty room and released 12 more inmates.

Of the 36 escapees, seven have been captured. (rms)