Govt and GAM to sign peace accord in Geneva
JAKARTA (JP): State Minister of Human Rights Affairs Hasballah M. Saad said on Friday that an agreement would be signed in the next week with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) "to resolve the Aceh issue".
Hasballah would not go into detail on the proposed agreement, saying only that it would be signed before May 7 in Geneva, Switzerland.
Further details of the agreement would be disclosed after the signing, Hasballah pledged.
"Everything has to be done gradually but, God willing, the agreement will be signed next week before May 7 in Geneva," he told reporters here.
"There have been many resolutions and the human rights tribunal in Aceh will be a part of the agreement," he added.
But Hasballah could not say who would sign the agreement, adding only that the Indonesian signatory would correspond with an official of equal rank to the GAM official.
"If it is only a senior official then maybe it isn't necessary for Hassan Tiro to sign it," he remarked, referring to the prominent GAM leader living in self-exile in Sweden.
But GAM officials have yet to publicly respond to the latest development. Past government claims of talks with Hassan Tiro have been refuted by GAM officials and Tiro.
Tiro, 75, first fled to Sweden in 1979.
Hasballah claimed Indonesian government representatives have held three informal meetings in Geneva with members of the separatist group. The latest one was attended by Hasballah in Geneva on April 13.
"Although I planned to meet Hassan Tiro, I didn't have a chance to," Hasballah said of the latest meeting.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab said earlier last month that on the first two meetings the two parties had agreed to halt violence in Aceh.
Hasballah claimed that there was no specific issue hampering talks between the two parties and claimed he was on good terms with the separatist movement members. "These people are my friends," he remarked.
In East Aceh, Regent Azman Usmanuddin quoted Governor Syamsuddin Mahmud as saying on Friday that President Abdurrahman Wahid had postponed his planned visit to Langsa in East Aceh until May 8. Details regarding the delay were not available.
Meanwhile in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh, the lack of a security guarantee will likely prevent the family of the Islamic religious teacher, the late Tengku Bantaqiah, from testifying in his ongoing murder trial.
"We will not testify until there is an official security guarantee from the prosecutors or the police. Only if it is given are we willing to do so," Fatimah, one of Bantaqiah's daughters, told the media on Friday.
Two of Bantaqiah's wives, Nur Farisah and Nur Lia, failed to show up to give their testimony in the previous court session on Wednesday.
The family of Bantaqiah said they had been under pressure since the beginning of the trial on April 19. Prosecutors in the tribunal charged 24 military soldiers and a civilian with the premeditated murder of Bantaqiah and no less than 57 of his students in the remote Beutong Ateuh village in West Aceh last year.
"Bantaqiah's children will not attend (the trial) because they were told to go home by the security personnel who guard the roads linking Meulaboh and Beutong in West Aceh and Takengon and Beutong in Central Aceh on our way to Banda Aceh some time ago," Fatimah said.
The family of Bantaqiah have been under the care of their legal representatives, Aceh's Legal Aid Foundation and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras).
The trial is slated to resume on Saturday.
Violence remained prevalent in Aceh. The latest grenade attacks hit three government offices in the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe and a military subdistrict office in Krueng Geukeuh, which is 18 kilometers away, on Friday morning, leaving two soldiers injured. An 18-year-old boy was arrested in connection with the attack. (50/51/edt/dja)