Acehnese urge GAM to sign peace deal
Acehnese urge GAM to sign peace deal
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The pressure is building for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to sign
a peace agreement with the government to put to rest the bloody
conflict that has been plaguing the resource-rich province for
the past 26 years.
Religious leaders, youth groups, students and business people
in the country's westernmost province threw their weight behind
the government-initiated peace accord on Thursday and urged GAM,
which has been fighting for independence since 1976, to endorse
the deal as soon as possible.
These aspirations were conveyed directly to Coordinating
Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono during meetings in Aceh and Medan, North Sumatra on
Thursday.
"The meetings were an attempt to demonstrate Acehnese people's
real support for the peace agreement," Aceh Governor Abdullah
Puteh said.
The meeting was held after Susilo returned from a three-day
visit to East Aceh, South Aceh and Southeast Aceh on Thursday.
Susilo said peace should be immediately restored in troubled
Aceh and that war that has haunted the life of Acehnese people in
the past decades, and should come to an end.
According to the minister, the current siege on a GAM
headquarters in North Aceh was a logical consequence of the
rebels' reluctance to sign a peace agreement with the government
immediately.
The government stated that it was ready to sign the peace deal
before the fasting month of Ramadhan started on Nov. 6, but GAM
was apparently not ready, instead preferring to iron out some
details in order to sign it by early December.
Government negotiator Wiryono Sastrohandoyo said Wednesday
that Nov. 23 had been proposed as the new date for signing the
accord. GAM, however, has not responded to that proposal.
Susilo said security operations should continue in Aceh to
safeguard the country's territorial integrity.
"The TNI and police have to restore peace and order and
protect the people. Now it all depends on GAM whether it still
wants to delay signing the peace agreement," he said.
In Jakarta, Indonesian military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono
Sutarto said Thursday that the siege had reduced security
disturbances by the rebels in the province.
"The fact is, security disturbances by GAM have fallen because
of the siege," Endriartono said after meeting President Megawati
Soekarnoputri to report on the latest situation in Aceh.
Thousands of military personnel have surrounded a suspected
GAM headquarters at Cot Trieng Village, Nisam district in North
Aceh.
Local military spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus said Thursday that
TNI would continue the siege at the swampy area until the rebels
surrendered.
Endriartono said the siege offered an "opportunity" for GAM to
sign a peace agreement with the government.
"We appeal to GAM to take advantage of this opportunity to
sign the peace agreement," Sutarto said, adding that if GAM
refused to comply, the TNI would close in and attack them.
"If that is the only way, then the government would not
hesitate (to attack)," Sutarto said.
According to Susilo, the peace agreement initiative started
two years ago and has been intensified in the past four months.
He said the government had met with the Henry Dunant Center
officials nine times and had revised the peace agreement draft 11
times.
Susilo told The Jakarta Post after the meeting that two issues
were still holding GAM back from signing the peace agreement and
those were the handing over of their weapons, as well as the role
of the TNI and police and its Mobile Brigade troops after they
hand in their weapons.
"Negotiations on the draft of the peace agreement are still
underway, therefore we can not publish it yet to avoid
misperceptions that could derail the peace process," Susilo said.
After signing the peace agreement, Susilo said, the next steps
would be implement all the details.
"The point is the peace agreement should be signed first, then
followed by monitoring, consolidation, reconciliation,
rehabilitation and amnesty," Susilo said.