Dark future tipped for govt-GAM talks
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.
Elections -- Page 2