Cease-fire, dialog preferred to settle Aceh crisis

Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Most of 13 Acehnese leaders who met with Vice President Hamzah Haz in Banda Aceh on Thursday said they preferred a cease-fire and dialog to settle the prolonged dispute between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government of Indonesia.

The various leaders, including the chairman of the Ulemas Council of Aceh Tengku Musli Ibrahim, demanded that both the government and GAM stop violence and begin a cease-fire combined with talks to deal with the lingering conflict.

"The people of Aceh have been longing for the sincerity of the government of Indonesia and GAM to stop the violence," Ibrahim said.

Hamzah said that a peace deal was the best alternative, saying that a cease-fire between the government and its own people was actually a misnomer.

"Is a cease-fire with our own people necessary?" Hamzah rhetorically asked.

A senior commander of GAM, Amri Abdul Wahab told The Jakarta Post by phone that GAM could agree to a cease-fire if it was requested by the Acehnese people. "But the Indonesian government must also lay down their arms."

Soon after his arrival in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, on Wednesday Hamzah offered peace to GAM, saying that the government would possibly give amnesty to the rebels.

His statements were not embraced, however by GAM officials.

Amri Abdul Wahab said on Wednesday that GAM would remain consistent with its struggle to be independent from "colonialist" Indonesia.

Meetings between GAM and the government had taken place in Geneva, Switzerland and in Banda Aceh. However, those meetings were not successful in stopping the violence.

In August this year, President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed the special Autonomy Law for Aceh, ruling that the province will receive 75 percent of its oil and gas revenues. According to the law, the new name for the province of Aceh is Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam.

While the situation in Banda Aceh was quiet on Thursday, South Aceh Police seized five long rifles with 13,930 bullets of various types from a truck passing Tapaktuan, some 445 kilometers from Banda Aceh.

Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Agus Dwiyanto told Antara in Banda Aceh that the truck driver and his assistant were in police custody.

"The guns and the bullets were slipped among the goods in the trucks," Agus said, adding that the guns and the bullets had no legal documents.