Body count in Aceh rises as JSC urges restraint
Nani Farida and Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The body count since a peace accord between the government and rebels in Aceh has risen again with another gunshot victim found on Wednesday, as the committee in charge of overseeing the province's security pleaded with both sides to refrain from further violence.
A total of 11 have now died since Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a framework peace deal on Dec. 9.
"We call on both sides to restrain themselves better and not initiate any further repressive or offensives moves," said Thailand's Maj. Gen. Thanongsuk Tuvinan in a press briefing on Tuesday.
Thanongsuk heads the foreign team at the Joint Security Committee (JSC) which will monitor the peace agreement.
The body of a 37-year old male, M. Zuhri, was found near a bridge at Ketapang village in the Aceh Besar regency early Wednesday. Villagers said they saw a gunshot wound.
His death followed that of two soldiers in clashes with an armed group last week. Four other soldiers sustained injuries.
Overall, however, Acehnese in Indonesia's only province where Islamic law, or sharia, is being applied, had a peaceful Christmas.
"We have received reports on a number of armed clashes and acts of violence from both GAM and the Indonesian Government in Aceh," JSC's Thanongsuk confirmed. "The JSC tripartite committee will follow up on these reports immediately."
One of the 50 GAM representatives on the committee, Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, said the JSC would investigate the clashes in the areas where they occurred.
The JSC is in charge of implementing the peace deal, especially to monitor violations and then decide on sanctions for those who breach the agreement. A 150-member monitoring team will help JSC to carry out security monitoring. GAM and Indonesia each have 50 members on the team, while foreign observers under the HDC make up the rest.
At the moment each side has 24 members on the team present. Eighteen Thai military officers arrived on Tuesday to join the others who arrived earlier.
Sofyan further said that GAM had rejected the Philippines involvement on the JSC, for fear that the Filipinos would lack objectivity.
"We strongly reject the involvement of the Philippines on the monitoring team," he said, adding that he already had filed the complaint during the peace agreement signing in Geneva.
Sofyan cited the Philippines' ongoing war with Muslim rebels and Jakarta's role in mediating peace with the Moro rebel group in the southern part of the Philippines.
According to him, a team from Norway or Brunei Darussalam would likely replace the Filipinos.
In Jakarta, the government said it would form a team to coordinate the flow of humanitarian aid and social rehabilitation funds to help rebuild Aceh after the peace deal.
The team will work for seven months starting in January to coordinate and distribute domestic and foreign aid to Aceh, said Coordinating Minister for Social Affairs Jusuf Kalla Tuesday.
Last week the United Nations sent a team to Aceh, its first in over two decades, to assess the province's humanitarian needs.