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.