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.