Govt and GAM to sign peace accord in Geneva

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)