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.