Autonomy promised for Aceh and Irian Jaya
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)