Government to lift Aceh's emergency status

Government to lift Aceh's emergency status

Agencies, Banda Aceh, Aceh

A civilian emergency law imposed on Aceh last year to deal with a
simmering rebellion will be lifted this month, the head of the
tsunami-hit province's reconstruction agency said on Sunday.

The move could signal the government's willingness to
intensify efforts to strike a peace deal with rebels of the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) when a fourth round of peace talks is held in
Helsinki, Finland, from May 26 to 31.

"It will not be extended," Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, chairman of
the powerful agency, told Reuters in the first disclosure of the
government's intention to lift the emergency status.

Kuntoro, a respected former energy minister, made no further
comments on the law nor give a precise date for when it would be
removed. It was introduced a year ago and extended for six months
last November. It followed one year of martial law.

Under emergency law, the civilian authority has governed Aceh
and can enforce security measures such as curfews and house
searches. But military personnel were not withdrawn when it first
took effect and clashes with rebels have been routine.

Underscoring Aceh's fragile security, a soldier and three GAM
rebels were killed during a clash on Friday in a village in
northern Aceh, the military said on Sunday.

Both Indonesia and the rebels were forced back to the
negotiating table after a giant tsunami slammed into Aceh on Dec.
26, leaving around 160,000 Acehnese dead or missing.

Thorny security and political issues are expected to be
discussed at the fourth round of talks this month.

The three-decade long separatist struggle in Aceh has claimed
more than 12,000 lives, many of them civilians.

Kuntoro was recently appointed to head the Rehabilitation and
Reconstruction Body for the Areas of Aceh Province and Nias
Island, North Sumatra. His agency will manage nearly $5 billion.

Meanwhile, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
visited Aceh on Sunday to publicize America's role in rebuilding
the region -- an undertaking Washington hopes will boost the
country's battered image elsewhere in Indonesia.

He met with local officials in Banda Aceh. Later in the day,
he was scheduled to inspect a washed-out coastal road and pledge
US$245 million (euro190 million) to rebuild it, AP reported.

America has since pledged nearly US$1 billion (euro770
million) in public and private funds for relief efforts for
tsunami-hit countries. Most of the funds are earmarked for Aceh.

The relief effort comes as anti-American sentiment in
Indonesia remains at record highs after the invasions of
Afghanistan and Iraq, which were perceived by many here as
attacks on Islam. The U.S. help has been welcomed in Aceh, where
distrust of the Jakarta government is high.

Zoellick said he saw hope was alive in the eyes of Acehnese
people

"They try to create a new Aceh and that gives me a sense of
hope," he was quoted by AFP as saying after witnessing the
signing of a memorandum of agreement with the Indonesian
government for the financing of the reconstruction and
rehabilitation of the main highway linking Banda Aceh to the west
coast.

"What we are starting today may give hope to bring life back
and a continuity to the people of Aceh," Zoellick said.

The US$245 million project will help reconstruct the main
highway linking the provincial capital to the town of Meulaboh,
some 240 kilometers away on the west coast of Aceh.

On Saturday, Zoellick met with President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono in Jakarta and said full normalization of military ties
with Indonesia was contingent on Jakarta's efforts to solve the
killing of two Americans in Papua province and its dealing with
atrocities in East Timor.

He was referring to an ambush near a Freeport gold mine in
2002, in which two American teachers and an Indonesian were
killed.