Government won't extend humanitarian pause in Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): As peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) resumed on Tuesday, Jakarta announced here that it will not extend the Humanitarian Pause with the movement when the truce expires next week.

"It is certain that the Humanitarian Pause will not be extended," defense minister Mahfud MD told journalists after a meeting with President Abdurrahman Wahid in Jakarta.

The Humanitarian Pause was first signed by representatives of both sides in Geneva in May last year. It took effect in June of last year and was extended until January 15, 2001.

"We have already been negotiating for two periods of the Humanitarian Pause and there have been no results at all. No results at all."

The peace talks on the future of the restive province resumed at an undisclosed Swiss location on Tuesday, the Agence France Presse reported.

The main negotiator for GAM, Abdullah Zaini, speaking by telephone on Tuesday, however, declined to comment on the talks, now in their fourth round, taking place amid a strict media blackout.

Mahfud said the government would continue to hold talks with the Acehnese but from now on would not limit them to GAM, which has been fighting for a free Islamic state since the mid 1970s.

"We will negotiate again, not only with GAM but also with other groups among the Acehnese people," he said.

"In principle, the government will meet whatever demands the people of Aceh have, except independence," he added.

Starting on January 16, Aceh police will begin a "law enforcement" campaign across the province, Mahfud said, but added that the campaign would not be a "military operation."

"Enforcing the law is the task of the police and so far they have not been able to do this due to restrictions imposed by the Humanitarian Pause," he said.

Meanwhile, in Banda Aceh, the authorities claimed that since the implementation of the deadline for all illegal weaponry to be surrendered to the police by Jan. 15, only a pistol and seven mortars have been handed in.

"The gun was handed over by Muhammad Amin, an Army veteran. The weaponry are quite old and previously belonged to the Aceh Museum," head of Aceh Besar Police Adj. Chief Comr. Sayed Husaini told media on Tuesday.

Aceh Museum chief Dahlan Hasan, however, told media later in the day that there were no guns or weaponry handed over to the police and that there is no official or staff at the museum named Muhammad Amin.

Despite the peace talks, violence continued in the province with a woman named Khadijah binti Latif, 36, shot dead at Glumpang Payong village in Sungai Raya district in East Aceh late on Monday.

A man was also in a critical condition following the incident, while 40 villagers were reportedly beaten by security forces who conducted a sweeping operation in the area.

Eight men were arrested following the incident and no less than 29 kiosks in the village were burned down, Umar Bin Piyah, an eyewitness and victim of the incident, said on Tuesday.

Deputy chief of the Sadar Rencong Operation Adj. Chief Comr. Yatim Suyatmo, however, said that only eight kiosks were on fire at the time of the incident.

"Four trucks loaded with Mobile Brigade officers were ambushed by gunmen with mortars. That was when the clash began," Suyatmo said on Tuesday.

GAM spokesman in East Aceh Ishak Daud said the movement was not involved in the clash.

In North Aceh, a local named Hanafiah bin Basyah, 25, was found dead in the Kuala Keureuto river in Tanah Pasir district on Monday evening. His body was covered with severe slash wounds.

A total of 40 people have been killed in Aceh this year, which brings the death toll to 545 since the implementation of the Humanitarian Pause in Aceh.

A leader of the Muhammadiyah Muslim organization Malik Fajar said in Banda Aceh on Tuesday that the Aceh problem must be solved in a peaceful way through "direct dialog with the people".

"Smiles and peace gestures are the way to solve Aceh's complicated problems," Malik said after opening the Muhammadiyah leadership meeting here on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, student groups in Aceh on Tuesday called for a full cease fire between the government and separatist rebels as violence in the region claimed another life.

They said the Humanitarian Pause has failed to reduce violence in the province.

"A cease fire is what the majority of Acehnese want to stop the violence," student leader Muhammad Taufik Abda said, while reading a statement signed by leaders of 31 Aceh student groups.

The students also urged the government to fire defense minister Mahfud MD and Aceh police chief Brig. Gen. Chaerul Rasyidi, saying that their statements on Aceh had aggravated the conflict. (50/edt)