Dark future tipped for govt-GAM talks
Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Plans to hold further peace talks between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) look likely to stalemate as both parties cannot agree on the final goal of the dialog.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo A.S. said on Monday that at the recent informal meeting in Finland, the government sought a "comprehensive and permanent solution" to the separatist conflict in tsunami-ravaged Aceh.
The GAM delegates meanwhile brought the concept of "a temporarily settlement merely aimed at ending the hostilities through a cease-fire", he said.
"With regard to stopping the conflict, we want a comprehensive and permanent solution ... not just talk about a cease-fire", Widodo said after a breakfast meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta.
"If there should be a further dialog, we want a clear agenda and substance to serve as the basis for discussions. Otherwise, we're not sure whether we would like to sit down again for talks," said Widodo, a retired four-star Navy admiral who was among the three ministers representing the government in the two- day talks with GAM leaders in Helsinki.
The top-level delegations from the government and GAM ended their dialog on Saturday with no concrete agreement on how to end war in Aceh, but vowed to meet again soon to seek a peaceful solution.
The two sides refused to disclose when the next meeting would take place, but it will reportedly be held in Helsinki on Feb. 21.
Separately, chief negotiator Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin insisted that the special autonomy offer for the resource-rich province was as far as the government would go to end the separatist conflict.
During the Helsinki dialog, Hamid said, the government delegation provided the GAM leaders with a copy of Law No. 18/2002 on Special Autonomy for Aceh and supporting documents.
"In principle, they (the GAM leaders) said they are willing to learn about the concept in detail," he said.
From Sweden, GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said that during the recent meeting, his side would only bring "practical and realistic issues to the discussion", particularly how to ensure that tsunami survivors could get relief aid quickly.
"How can we stop a three decades-long conflict in only one or two days?," he said.
Bakhtiar lamented Indonesia's efforts to limit the talks to only discussing special autonomy for Aceh, which meant that "the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia is the final concept".
Meanwhile, the facilitator of the talks, the Finland-based Crisis Management Initiative, said it was preparing the guidelines for the next meeting.
Bakhtiar said GAM's willingness to attend the next set of talks depended on the proposed guidelines.
He said the rebel group would insist on demanding an independence referendum for Aceh instead of accepting the special autonomy status.
"But it must be the aspirations of the majority of people in Aceh," he said.
"The idea of a referendum was not taken to the negotiation table (in the last talks) ... But we must discuss this in the next step," Backtiar told The Jakarta Post from Sweden.
He said it would be easy to hold a referendum in Aceh with the help of international monitoring groups.
The rebels began fighting for independence in 1976, accusing the central government of plundering the province's resources. More than 12,000 people have died in the conflict.
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