Autonomy promised for Aceh and Irian Jaya

JAKARTA (JP): In a bid to quell secessionist sentiments, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) ruled on Tuesday that the new government must confer special autonomy status on the oil and gas-rich Aceh province and the mineral-rich Irian Jaya province.

The country's highest legislative body also ordered the government to immediately investigate human rights violations in Aceh and Irian Jaya and prosecute those found responsible for the abuses.

"The special autonomy status will be arranged through a law," MPR Speaker Amien Rais told the assembly in a plenary session.

The MPR also ruled that the government must immediately resolve the communal bloody conflict in the Maluku province which broke out late last year and continues to claim lives.

The new rulings will be inserted in the new five-year State Policy Guidelines adopted by the MPR for the upcoming government.

The MPR will elect the country's new president on Wednesday.

MPR member from Aceh Ghazali Abas walked out of the plenary session after his demand that the commitments to Aceh be stipulated in a separate chapter in the State Guidelines was rejected.

Thousands of Acehnese were killed during the authoritarian 32- year-rule of former president Soeharto. The death toll was particularly high following the imposition in 1989 of military operation status to crush separatist guerrillas. The guerrillas are demanding an independent Islamic state for the province.

Soeharto's successor B.J. Habibie revoked Aceh's military operation status last year, but the death toll in Aceh has continued and human rights abuses remain rampant.

Acehnese have long condemned the Soeharto government for siphoning off the province's abundant oil and gas resources for the benefit of Java island.

Human rights abuses have also been rampant in the Irian Jaya province and have sparked separatist rebel movements.

In comparison to other provinces in Java, Sumatra and Sulawesi, Aceh and Irian Jaya remain underdeveloped.

Riots in Aceh, Irian Jaya and Maluku provinces have intensified since the downfall of Soeharto in May last year.

The spice islands of Maluku have been plagued since last year by Christian-Moslem riots. Hundreds have been killed in the riots.

The Aug. 30 referendum in East Timor, in which a majority of the people opted for independence over a special autonomy packaged offered by the Habibie administration, has raised concerns that provinces like Aceh, Irian Jaya and Maluku might demand similar options to separate from Indonesia.

"We agree that special autonomy be granted to Aceh and Irian Jaya ... (and) to immediately resolve the problems in Maluku," said Golkar spokeswoman Evita Asmalda.

The National Awakening Party (PKB) supported the Golkar opinion.

The PKB party said Indonesia was currently facing a serious threat to its national unity. It said conflicts in those provinces were triggered by an overconcentration of power in the central government and unjust revenue-sharing of natural resources.

Other factions, including the largest faction in the MPR -- the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) -- also agreed on the necessity to grant special autonomy status to Aceh and Irian Jaya.

But PDI Perjuangan spokesman Laksamana Sukardi underlined that the suffering of the people in Aceh, Irian Jaya and Maluku, as well as in other provinces, led to one conclusion: the country needed a new leader who resided in the heart of the people. (rei/jsk/prb)