Government and GAM to hold consultation dialog

Government and GAM to hold consultation dialog

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) will hold a consultation dialog on Saturday in Geneva,
Switzerland, to evaluate the implementation of the humanitarian
pause in the troubled province.

Speaking to journalists after a coordination meeting for
political affairs and security on Tuesday, State Minister of
Human Rights Affairs Hasballah M. Saad described the meeting as a
regular joint forum to evaluate the pause and the latest
developments on the ground.

Coordinating Minister for Political Affairs and Security
Spokesman Brig. Gen. I Wayan Karya said the humanitarian pause
would officially end on Sept. 2, and that a full evaluation would
be conducted on Aug. 15.

"We expect to prolong the pause for another three months," I
Wayan said.

Meanwhile, in Banda Aceh, activists gave mixed reaction to
whether the humanitarian pause should be extended.

"The pause is useless because there is no significant legal
sanction on violators," the Center for Information on a
Referendum in Aceh (SIRA) coordinator, Muhammad Nazar, said.

The upcoming meeting in Geneva would only be effective if both
camps -- the Indonesian government and GAM -- were willing to
impose clear sanctions instead of merely "moral consequences"
toward any violators of the pause, he added.

At least 33 people have died since the enactment of the pause
on June 2.

But Ahmad Humam Hamid, an activist who heads a humanitarian
assistance team to the Aceh governor, said that if the
humanitarian pause is not extended people in Aceh will suffer
more, as one-third of the 4.2 million population is already being
hit by a food crisis.

"If the pause ends, Acehnese will die not only from guns and
violence, but from starvation," Humam, who is also a chairman of
the Leuser National Park Foundation and lecturer at Syiah Kuala
University, said. (50/edt/dja)