Government urged to seek solution to Aceh strife

JAKARTA (JP): Amien Rais, speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), has urged President Abdurrahman Wahid to initiate a meeting with the leaders of legislative bodies and the Indonesian Military (TNI) to seek a comprehensive solution to the conflict in Aceh.

"The President and Vice President should invite leaders of the MPR, the House of Representatives and the TNI to a day-long meeting to seek a comprehensive solution that will be offered to Acehnese people," he said in a seminar discussing the ideal format for Aceh's future here on Friday.

The format could be offered to the congress of Aceh people slated to be held in the North Sumatra capital of Medan next month, he said.

He said the Acehnese could be divided into three groups; those that defended the current administration system; those that demanded the immediate implementation of special autonomy in the region; and those struggling for a self-determination referendum.

"I'm afraid that Aceh, which has contributed trillions of rupiah to the nation's development from its rich natural resources, will finally secede from Indonesia," he said.

Former home affairs minister Syarwan Hamid, another speaker at the seminar, warned the government of complications in the Aceh problem.

"The main problem in Aceh doesn't regard security matters but the prolonged injustice the Acehnese have suffered. The province has a special status but its people have never enjoyed its specialization," he said.

He said the province contributed annually around Rp 59 trillion to the central government from its natural resources but only kept less than one percent of it.

Anhar Gonggong, a historian from the University of Riau in Pekanbaru, asserted that the Acehnese did not need an appropriate administration system but concrete actions to end their prolonged suffering.

"Whatever decisions the government and the political elite will make, they should end the sufferings of the Acehnese," he said at the seminar.

Inconsistency

Separately, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) criticized the government's inconsistent policies in handling the conflict in Aceh, which has left 105 people, mostly civilians, dead over the past month alone.

Kontras' coordinator in Aceh, Munarwan, said that more military operations had been conducted, despite President Abdurrahman's pledge to use nonmilitary approaches to solve the conflict.

Munarwan said the escalating violence in the troubled province was represented by the extended area of conflict, from three regions in the first quarter of 1999 to nine regions now.

There are now new parties playing a role in the conflict, other than the Indonesian National Military (TNI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group, such as religious leaders, students, nongovernmental organization activists and villagers, according to a Kontras report.

He said a recent inquiry Kontras carried out in Aceh found evidence of military involvement in some civilian beatings and killings, and arson attacks on shops, an elementary school building and a rice mill.

It also said that the six marines who were killed last Monday in Ujong Blang village in Jeumpa regency were not ambushed while praying in a mosque as reported.

While urging a cease-fire and dialog, Kontras suggested that the National Commission on Human Rights set up an inquiry commission in Aceh, similar to the team formed to investigate the violence in East Timor and Maluku.

In Lhokseumawe, the capital of North Aceh, a man was killed in a bomb blast on Jl. Perdagangan at around 11:30 a.m. on Friday, local police chief Lt. Col. Syafei Aksal said.

The victim, identified as Mochtar Usman, was on the sidewalk when the bomb exploded.

Police have questioned two witnesses, identified as Yunus and Ibrahim, both from Samtalira Bayu village, 14 kilometers south of Lhokseumawe. (01/50/edt/rms)