Government won't extend humanitarian pause in Aceh

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)