Giving peace a chance to take root in Aceh

Martin Griffiths, Director, Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialog Geneve

On Sundays at the beach in Lampu near Banda Aceh, young couples stroll across the sand holding hands, laughing and flirting. Children frolic in the surf and sit on its foamy edge building sand castles. Families picnic. Games of football and volleyball seemingly break out spontaneously across the mile-long stretch of sand. Until eight weeks ago, the beach -- Free Aceh Movement (GAM)-held territory and tacitly off-limits -- had been nearly empty for years.

In the cities, the towns, the kampongs, people can be seen along the streets and in the cafes socializing late into the night -- more activities that people have been, for years, afraid to risk.

Take a look around Aceh -- at the smiles on people's faces, the rice farmers knee-deep in their paddies, the general air of relief and optimism -- and you might not realize that this place has seen almost three decades of bloody conflict, that in the last two years alone an estimated 4,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

For the first time in years, people are beginning to openly criticize, to find their voice.

Surely, good signs of peace breaking out.

This is what I saw on my first trip to Aceh since the peace agreement was signed Dec. 9.

While I was in Aceh, I met with the leadership of both the government of Indonesia and GAM and both parties expressed their commitment to the peace talks.

Both parties realize that there is no military solution, that armed struggle is not the answer. Both parties agree that moving toward democracy and development is a better way. Both parties recognized there would be problems and there have been. Both parties expressed to me their dedication to solve those problems.

No one imagined the peace process would be so successful, so quickly -- bringing an end to hostilities and making life safe for the people of Aceh. And, certainly, no one wants to go back to the way things were only two months ago.

That's the difference two months can make. Peace in Aceh is far from a done deal but the situation has improved so dramatically in such a short space of time that it's easy to forget that there's a peace process going on -- a very fragile peace process that needs to be very carefully nurtured.

But no one should forget, not in the dense rainforests and coffee plantations of Aceh, not in the halls of government in Jakarta, not anywhere. The month before the Indonesian government and GAM agreed to sit down at a table and work out their differences, more than 200 people died as a result of the conflict.

Just over two months ago, the government and GAM signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) in Geneva. It is important to understand that it is exactly what it says -- an agreement to stop fighting and a framework to negotiate peace. It is important to understand that this is just the beginning, that the end requires hard work and the collective will to make it succeed.

The COHA, as the agreement is called, is meant to create the space and the environment for peace, and, so far, it has worked remarkably well. But there is no quick fix. We must not put the end-game first. Peace processes take time, understanding, compromise and patience. Peace processes require that the parties negotiating them want peace and are willing to work together, despite their differences, to reach a common goal.

And, yes, peace processes require optimism and hope. They require support and advocacy. They need to be allowed the breathing space to flourish.

Above all, peace processes require that the parties involved maintain their eye on the prize -- that a peaceful Aceh benefits every Indonesian. It demonstrates that there are ways to solve differences other than with the gun. It demonstrates that both the government and GAM possess the courage and the foresight to see the economic and strategic benefits -- the "peace dividends" -- of solution through dialog.

The international community recognizes this and they are pledging economic support to bolster the peace process.

The peace process demands perspective. Yes, there have been isolated outbreaks of violence. There have been armed clashes and people are still getting killed because of the conflict. But the armed clashes, the deaths are a tiny fraction of what they were just two months ago.

They will likely continue to take place. No one could possibly expect that the residual effects of nearly three decades of conflict would evaporate overnight. On the other hand, who would have thought two months ago that a week could pass in Aceh without an armed clash? Without a conflict-related death? That has happened several times and that is progress no one can deny.

As a result, expectations are high and they should be. Given the dramatic improvements in Aceh, the COHA may seem like a magic elixir but it's not. There is no such thing.

The demilitarization phase over the next five months is the agreement's toughest test yet but both sides are working hard to make it meaningful.

The Joint Security Committee (JSC), the body created to negotiate peace, is a guiding hand but it is not a government.

The JSC and the COHA are only as strong as the sum of its parts -- and the will of the government, GAM and the people of Aceh to make real peace a reality.