Disappointing the Acehnese

After having experienced a very brief spell of peace in their troubled province since the signing of a peace agreement between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Dec. 9 last year, the 2.4 million Acehnese people must now prepare themselves to face the resumption of the ferocities that they had experienced in the last 26 years. The people's suffering will continue for an indefinite period of time, and the parties who are responsible for welfare of the Acehnese are busy putting the blame on one other.

If the Acehnese people cannot see even a preliminary demilitarization in their homeland -- as is required under the peace accord -- how can they still dream of seeing the implementation of elections for self-governance next year? According to the peace accord, Aceh will have a democratically elected government next year. But in reality their most urgent need is to survive the violence and economic hardship of the present. Death is still a reality that the Acehnese have to reckon with in their daily lives.

Following the current trading of accusations between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and GAM, people fear that the peace accord will soon become an empty legal document. TNI leaders are hardening their stance against the proindependence separatists, saying that GAM is boosting its campaign for the independence of Aceh while intensifying its military build-up, using the momentum provided by the disarmament. GAM, for its part, is accusing the TNI of refusing to relocate its troops to a defensive position.

As many observers see it, however, the exchange of accusations is no more than a pretext on both sides to terminate the Henry Dunant Center (HDC)-brokered peace accord. The TNI never believed for a moment that GAM would voluntarily give up its dream of an independent Aceh. As far as the TNI is concerned, Aceh is an integral part of the unitary state of Indonesia that must be kept at all cost. Special autonomy for Aceh is the final and only choice for the province.

So, the five-month disarmament period that started on Feb. 9 is now facing a very serious problem -- all the more so since the withdrawal of TNI troops is a complicated issue that affects the vested-interests of many parties. It is regretful to see the attitude of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's government amid all this. It is hard to refute the public impression that Megawati has already fully entrusted the pacification of Aceh to Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Gen. (ret.) Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the military top brass.

Without the President's continuous intervention to keep the peace momentum, war and violence will soon begin again in the rebellious province because, frankly speaking, the TNI top brass, deep in their hearts, never believed in the need for an agreement. We are afraid, however, that Megawati's passion for maintaining the unitary state of Indonesia will be used by those who oppose any peace accord with the Aceh rebels to persuade the President to do it their way, and not to give any political space to GAM.

Under the agreement reached in Geneva, the government has agreed to review Law No. 18, 2001 on special autonomy for Aceh in order to enable the people there to elect their own government, and for GAM to participate in the government. But the current law only allows the Acehnese to elect their own governor, but not to choose their own legislators or to have their own political parties. However, as the major political parties are now busy preparing for next year's general election, it is nearly impossible to expect them to pay much attention to Aceh, much less to revise Law No. 18.

Like it or not, with the presence of international community representatives in the province, Aceh has become an international issue. The government can no longer argue that Aceh is purely a internal Indonesian issue, and that the world cannot intervene in its domestic affairs. Unlike in the past, when violations of human rights could be easily hidden from the international community, the current presence of the HDC and other international organizations in Aceh will make it very difficult to hide anything from the world.

We fully understand that the government does not want to repeat the previous government's mistake of letting East Timor to be separated from Indonesia in 1999. But if the government continues to use only military force to tame its rebellious citizens, as it had tried to do in East Timor, it will be only a matter of time before the Acehnese people follow in East Timor's path.

Unfortunately, once again, the government is barging around like a bull in a china shop, repeating all the same mistakes it made in East Timor.