Foreign envoys weigh support for Aceh truce

Foreign envoys weigh support for Aceh truce

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh

Ambassadors from the United States, Japan and Italy arrived here
on Monday for a two-day visit to show support for a recent peace
agreement to end decades of hostilities in the troubled province
of Aceh.

World Bank country director Andrew Steer was also among the
delegation members that included U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia
Ralph L. Boyce, Japanese Ambassador Yutaka Iimura, and Italian
Ambassador Franscesco Maria Greco who represented the European
Union.

They were accompanied by Coordinating Minister for Political
and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Minister of
Trade and Industry Rini Suwandi.

The three foreign envoys and the ministers went straight into
a closed-door meeting with Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, all the
regents in Aceh, and other local government officials.

The visit came more than one month after the Indonesian
government and the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a peace
deal on Dec. 9 in Geneva to cease all hostilities in the conflict
which seen some 10,000 killed since 1976.

"We are here to celebrate and honor the signing of the
cessation of hostilities agreement," Boyce told the meeting,
referring to the peace accord.

"We believe the people of Aceh want peace and deserve peace.
We believe the government in Jakarta wants peace and is trying to
carry out the hard work of bringing peace to Aceh," he added.

Iimura concurred with Boyce, saying: "Peace is important, not
only for the people of Aceh, not only for the people of
Indonesia, but also for the Southeast Asia region".

"The European Union is for the integrity and unity of
Indonesia and also supports the decentralization process," Greco
said.

"The European Union also supports the process of dialog to
solve the conflict in Aceh and the ongoing process. Let peace go
ahead," he added.

Boyce said the two-day visit reflected the world community's
support for the peace process in the resource-rich province.

"Our work and our support, will be, of course, dependent on
the security environment," he said.

Iimura said that the visit was to follow up on the Tokyo
Preparatory Conference on Peace and Reconstruction in Aceh which
took place on Dec. 3.

Donors at the conference agreed that a coordinated approach by
a number of countries to support Aceh would make for more
effective use of aid. The current visit is to further assess the
development needs in the province.

World Bank's Steer said four teams had come to Aceh to
identify crucial needs to develop the province's economic, social
and governmental affairs.

The teams were drafting a report to be discussed in a
conference with the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI)
scheduled for Jan. 21 and Jan. 22 in Bali, he said.

He said there will be a special session to discuss the
reconstruction process in Aceh during the conference.

Steer said the peace process should sincerely be maintained so
as to smooth the way for foreign aid to Aceh, adding that if
peace was not ensured, fund assistance would be halted.

He could not give the amount of aid that would go to the
province. "The important thing now is not how much aid will be
given to Aceh but ... how to do reconstruction and rehabilitation
in Aceh so that it can become a new era for a new Aceh", he said.

Minister Susilo told the same forum that security was
increasingly getting better in Aceh despite the fact that
sporadic violence still broke out since the peace pact.

"We hope there will be no one wanting to disrupt and betray
the ongoing peace process," he said.

The foreign delegation was slated to meet Indonesian and GAM
representatives in the Joint Security Committee being tasked with
monitoring the truce enforcement in Aceh.