Govt eyes monitoring agency for Aceh

Govt eyes monitoring agency for Aceh

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In the next round of peace talks on Aceh, the government will
propose to establish an independent committee to supervise the
implementation of a cease-fire between the government and the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Learning from past failures to implement a ceasefire, Minister
of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said members of the monitoring
team would be recruited from a third party, not from the
government or GAM.

"The concept is that we need to have a monitoring committee to
ensure the effectiveness of the cessation of hostility. Members
of the monitoring committee should come from a third party,"
Hassan said on Monday.

He said the independent monitoring committee would emulate a
similar committee established in Moro, Southern Philippines, to
supervise the implementation of a ceasefire between the
Philippine troops and the rebel group, the Moro National
Liberation Front.

Indonesia at that time sent observers to Moro to join the
monitoring team in the mid-1990s.

When asked if Indonesia would allow foreigners to sit on the
proposed monitoring committee, Hassan said: "We haven't discussed
any details yet on the idea."

He added that the committee would have the authority to
conduct an investigation into any violence occurring after the
planned agreement.

Representatives of the government and GAM will sit for peace
talks in Geneva early this October to end a chain of violence
rampaging the territory.

The peace talks will be facilitated by the Henry Dunant Center
(HDC), which has been brokering talks between the government and
GAM for the past three years.

The government and GAM agreed in early 2000 to end the
violence in Aceh, but the agreement failed to stop the violence.
They accused each other of failing to honor the agreement.

"That is why we need to make a different arrangement than the
one we had in the past," Hassan said.

He assured that the upcoming agreement would be different as
GAM had agreed to accept the special autonomy law for Aceh, with
some revisions.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono explained that the upcoming agreement on
the cessation of hostility would contain articles regarding the
monitoring committee.

He also said that the agreement would enable the Indonesian
Military (TNI) and GAM to work together and curb criminal actions
conducted by bad elements in TNI and GAM.

"GAM admitted that there were bad elements that could not be
controlled. After the signing of the agreement, all those bad
elements in the province will be treated as the common enemy," he
said.

The minister said that the government had sent the peace
proposal to GAM through the HDC and there were three articles
that needed to be further discussed.

"The three articles are on a demilitarized zone, political
rights for all GAM members that are willing to return to the
Republic of Indonesia and the process to review the special
autonomy law," Susilo said.