Government, GAM to resume peace talks soon in Geneva

Government, GAM to resume peace talks soon in Geneva

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Banda Aceh

Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Governor Abdullah Puteh said on
Wednesday that the recommencement of a dialog between the
government and the Free Aceh Movement would take place in Geneva
on Oct. 31 or Nov. 1, with the Henry Dunant Center (HDC)
mediating the peace talks.

Puteh made the announcement after a consultation with the
Supreme Court to discuss the enforcement of Law No. 18/2001 on
special autonomy in Aceh, including the establishment of a sharia
court in Jakarta.

"So far so good and the dialog will resume on Oct. 31 or Nov.
1," he said.

Puteh said GAM had given a positive response to the planned
talks and both sides had agreed with the meeting's main agenda.

The peace talks, which were previously agreed on during the
May meeting in Geneva, were scheduled to be held in early
October, but were postponed because of mounting tension in Aceh
last month and several technical problems experienced by the HDC
in designing the planned meeting's agenda.

Previously, the government gave GAM until early December to
sit down at the negotiating table to find a peaceful solution to
the conflict. It also required that GAM accept the special
autonomy law as a prerequisite and that Indonesia is a unitary
state to continue further negotiations.

The government has threatened to impose martial law in the
province to end the conflict and further loss of innocent victims
should GAM decline to head back to the negotiating table.

Both sides have held several dialogs both at home and overseas
since the conflict erupted in the 1970s but every agreement has
proven ineffective to ending the conflict because of numerous
violations.

Many Acehnese joining GAM have taken up arms to fight for the
province's independence in reaction to rampant human rights
abuses, especially during the military operation between 1989 and
1998 in the province, which killed thousands of civilians.

Puteh, who will represent the Aceh administration in the peace
talks, said both sides were scheduled to discuss GAM's acceptance
of the special autonomy law and its implementation.

"GAM has accepted special autonomy as a starting point to end
the prolonged conflict that has claimed thousands of people but
its acceptance will be further discussed in detail," he said.

Meanwhile, Teuku Kamaruzzaman, a GAM negotiator, said that GAM
had yet to accept any invitation from the HDC on the planned
meeting and had yet to be informed on the main agenda to be
discussed during the meeting.

"We're still waiting for an invitation from the HDC," he said.

When asked about the meeting's agenda, Kamaruzzaman said that
GAM accepted the special autonomy law only as a starting point
for further dialog to end the conflict.

"We accept special autonomy only as the beginning of a
commentary, because it was drawn up unilaterally by the
Indonesian government," he said without elaborating.

A direct gubernatorial election and the planned enforcement of
sharia law in the province have nothing to do with GAM's
proposals to end the conflict, he said.

"During the last two meetings in February and May of this
year, both sides discussed the direct gubernatorial election that
would be conducted in 2004 but we have yet to agree on how it
will be conducted," he said.