Government to issue new policy on Aceh
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government will evaluate the viability of the current security policy in Aceh before issuing a presidential decree to change the current status of civilian order in the troubled province, a top official said on Monday.
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said the evaluation was partly in response to calls from civilian politicians for the declaration of a military emergency to stop the separatist movement in Aceh.
"The government will be evaluating its policies in Aceh within the next three weeks .... There will be a new policy," he said after speaking at a workshop on integrated responses to regional conflicts.
The statement comes after the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) reaffirmed its commitment to peace talks with Jakarta.
In a press release issued from his home in Stockholm, GAM chief negotiator Zaini Abdullah called on Jakarta to respect an agreement signed in May in Geneva, and to allow the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Center and other international mediators to proceed quickly to the next steps of the peace initiative.
But Yudhoyono said the recent escalation in violence in the country's westernmost province showed that GAM was the root of the problems there.
He said that whatever the government's new policy, it had to comply with the law and be supported by all parties, including the international community.
Although he said the current integrated policy in Aceh, which includes rebuilding the economy and improving people's welfare, was better than a military approach, Yudhoyono asserted that "without hurting the people, GAM should be stopped".
This may be accomplished without sending in more troops, he said, but by increasing intelligence operations and restoring ties with the Acehnese.
The Army's Special Force (Kopassus) reportedly began an intelligence operation in Aceh last Wednesday, while local people say the current situation in the province resembles the decade of harsh military operations between 1989 and 1998.