Finland provides money, experts for AMM activities

Finland provides money, experts for AMM activities

Veeramalla Anjaiah, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Many Indonesians think of two things when they think of Finland.
The first is Nokia cell phones and the other is the signing of
the peace agreement between the government and the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) in Finland's capital Helsinki last month.

Thanks to the initiative of former Finnish president and the
chairman of Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), Martti Ahtisaari,
the Indonesian government and GAM leaders signed a memorandum of
understanding (MoU) on Aug. 15 to put an end to 30 years of
violence that claimed 15,000 lives in Aceh province.

Though the Aceh peace dialog was initiated by the Crisis
Management Initiative chairman Ahtisaari, the government of
Finland fully supported the initiative.

"Our government fully supported Martti Ahtisaari's initiative
and provided around 200,000 euros (US$250,000) for the logistics
during the talks," Finland's Ambassador to Indonesia Markku
Niinioja, who witnessed the signing of the peace agreement in
Helsinki, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Ambassador Niinioja said two officials from Finland's Ministry
of Foreign Affairs attended the talks as observers.

The story does not end there in Helsinki, says Niiniojo, a
career diplomat who submitted his credentials to president
Megawati Soekarnoputri on Aug. 6, 2003.

Finland announced on the same day the MoU was signed its
active participation in the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM).

"By mid-September, when the actual monitoring will begin, the
total number of Finnish personnel (in AMM) will increase to some
35 experts. Finland has also expressed readiness to contribute to
the training of the international monitors prior to the actual
deployment," Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Erkki Tuomioja
said in a press release sent to the Post.

The AMM will have about 250 people from the European Union and
five Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) states --
Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines and Brunei -- who
will collect weapons and monitor the peace deal during its six-
month mission.

"We have decided to contribute 2.2 million euros to the AMM
operations in Aceh through the European Commission," Niinioja,
who was a peacekeeping coordinator at the foreign affairs
ministry from 1994 to 1998, said.

Finland, a small but prosperous Nordic country, also
contributed a huge amount of money to Aceh and other tsunami-
affected regions in Asia.

"We have donated 20 million euros for humanitarian relief and
another 30 million euros for the reconstruction of tsunami-hit
nations, including Indonesia. But the 30 million euros will be
channeled through the Multi-Donor Trust Fund. From this 50
million euros, Indonesia will have the biggest share," Niiniojo,
who has a master's degree in political science, said.

The 60-year-old diplomat said about 6.5 million euros from
Finland's total tsunami aid had been given to agencies like
Finnish Church Aid, the International Labor Organization and the
Food and Agriculture Organization to spend on specific projects
in Aceh and Nias in North Sumatra.

"In the future, we may increase our assistance to Aceh if
needed," Niiniojo said.