Drop draconian decree: Acehnese

Drop draconian decree: Acehnese

JAKARTA (JP): The Acehnese people's call for the revocation of
a presidential decree that was used to authorize a military
operation in this restive province gets the cold shoulder from
Jakarta.

Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Adm. Widodo A.S.
categorically rejected here on Tuesday the possibility of
revoking the 2001 Presidential Decree No. 4 issued by former
president Abdurrahman Wahid.

"We still need the presidential decree as the legal rationale
to deal with the Aceh issue," Widodo said.

The decree, issued in April this year, lays down guidelines
for political, security, economic, social and legal matters in
the province, where the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been
fighting for an independent state since 1976.

Jakarta's rejection came only three days after President
Megawati Soekarnoputri pledged to seek a peaceful solution to the
Aceh problem in her visit to the province.

"We must share a common perception that we will settle (the
Aceh problem) without violence," she told a gathering of about
2,000 people in the grounds of Aceh's Baiturrahman Grand Mosque
on Saturday.

Widodo said the TNI never used the decree to legitimize TNI'S
repressive actions.

"So far we have implemented it according to procedures," he
said and claimed that the government, under the coordinating
minister for political and security affairs, continued to
evaluate it.

About 1,200 people are believed to have been killed in Aceh
this year alone.

Expressing a similar view, Minister of Defense Matori Abdul
Jalil also rejected the demand for the revocation of the decree.

"The presidential decree will not be revoked but what is clear
is that it will be improved," Matori was quoted as saying by AFP
at Merdeka Palace on Tuesday.

Speaking after talks between Megawati and the head of Japan's
defense agency, Gen. Nakatani, Matori said there would be greater
stress on a nonviolent approach in Aceh.

"The political and security minister and his staff are
currently evaluating measures that are needed to improve the
decree," said Matori.

Matori said the government planned to resume peace talks with
GAM but only for a settlement which rules out independence -- a
goal which the rebels insist on.

In a related development, political analysts responded
cautiously to the government's green light to permit European
Union observers in Jakarta visit the restive provinces of Aceh
and Irian Jaya.

"The European countries' desire to help the government solve
problems related to Aceh and Irian Jaya is positive but their
involvement should be kept outside the political domain,"
political researcher Mochtar Pabottingi was quoted as saying by
Antara.

Riza Sihbudi, Mochtar's colleague from the National Institute
of Sciences (LIPI), said he was afraid that the East Timor
experience would be repeated in Aceh.

A EU union official who refused to be named said a team of 14
envoys planned to visit Aceh early next month and Irian Jaya in
December.

They also planned to visit East Kalimantan early in November
to help the government tackle the illegal logging problem in the
province.

The envoys involvement in the mission would be restricted to
activities which would "guard the integrity of the country," he
told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday. (dja/tso/hbk)