Govt, GAM must redraw road map to Aceh peace

Govt, GAM must redraw road map to Aceh peace

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Staff Writer, The Jakarta Post
Penang, Malaysia

President Megawati Soekarnoputri's address to the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR) on Aug. 1, in which she said the
government was considering a resumption of dialog to settle the
Aceh issue peacefully, has cast a hopeful light over the search
for a comprehensive solution to the prolonged problem.

Many parties, both at home and abroad, have urged the
government to lift martial law and stop the military operation
that has brought more grief than relief to the Acehnese. It is
the people of Aceh who are most entitled to assess the "peace"
achieved in the province, not the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) or the
Indonesian Military (TNI).

The President's statement likely came from an awareness that
war will not resolve the problem, but will just bring more
suffering to the Acehnese.

Following almost three months of an uneven war that has
claimed the lives of more than 500 suspected rebels, and in which
700 others have been netted, and in which tens of thousands of
Acehnese have been displaced, it is urgent that the warring
parties sit down together again at the negotiating table to draw
a new road map to end the war.

So far the military and the police "have won" the war --
meaning that they have killed hundreds of rebels, arrested
hundreds of others and now control a bigger part of the province.

Indeed one could observe that with such results the government
is in no mood to go to the trouble of trying to resume
negotiations. Yet a simple way to evaluate whether the war is
really bringing security to Aceh's residents is to look at the
Acehnese who have returned from refugee camps. Several days after
returning home, they are still afraid of the soldiers and police
officers who patrol urban areas.

They must make a whole new start as their paddy crops were
ruined, their cattle were killed and other assets were stolen.
Most adult men have fled to other provinces for fear of being
accused of being a rebel.

To avoid repeating mistakes, the government should try a new
political maneuver, functioning as a regulator and facilitator by
redrawing a road map for a peaceful future for the Acehnese.

Peace is a condition the government should create and build on
to ensure the Acehnese can live peacefully in their homeland. To
win the hearts of the Acehnese, as the government repeatedly says
it wants to do, it should first change its perception of Aceh to
be able to construct a new road map that functions as a guideline
for rebuilding Aceh.

The issue of Aceh should not be reduced to that of a mere
rebellion. Most of Aceh's population of 3.6 million people have
been waiting for peace for a long time, to enable them to develop
their rich land to catch up with other provinces. The Acehnese
are tired of the 26-year armed conflict that has claimed more
than 12,000 lives and with the way the government has handled the
conflict.

Enduring four decades of repression, many Acehnese have
demanded that the government stop the ongoing military offensive,
which initially was planned for six months. According to this
original schedule, martial law, first imposed on May 19, should
be lifted in November.

The extension of the military operation for another six months
would likely jeopardize politics nationwide on the eve of the
first ever direct presidential election. To achieve a legitimate
government from the elections, political parties should seek to
cut short the military operations to prevent the military from
taking political advantage of the Aceh issue, as well as to
enable the Acehnese to participate in the elections.

Following the six-month military operation, the legislature
should follow up its recent assessment of the situation and seek
to end the military operation and start an all-inclusive Aceh
dialog. Such a dialog was included in the failed Cessation of
Hostilities Agreement signed by the government and GAM in Geneva,
Switzerland, on Dec. 9, 2002.

Those playing an important role in the dialog should represent
the Acehnese, the government and GAM, and the main agenda of the
dialog should be to make an inventory of Aceh's problems and how
they should be resolved.

All sides, especially the government, should first listen to
the Acehnese on their thoughts on injustice and human right
abuses of the past. Both the military and GAM have no competence
to speak about these issues, in which they were involved.

The government should be receptive should the Acehnese demand
trials for all those involved in past human rights violations, or
if they demand compensation for all past victims of violence.

During a seminar on peace journalism here, Kamarulzaman
Askandar, an expert on Aceh at the University Sains Malaysia in
Penang, said: "A transparent and fair trial of all human rights
perpetrators and a fair compensation for all victims of violence
in the past will help regain the confidence of the Acehnese
people in the government."

He also said that "the government should enforce the law and
fulfill its promises to implement development programs to improve
the social welfare of the Acehnese". He hoped that in facing
injustice and human rights violations, the Acehnese would remain
sober and patient, and pardon the government's failures.

Concerning the territory's future, the Acehnese are expected
to fully support Aceh's status as an integral part of Indonesia,
while the government should lobby GAM leaders to accept the
province's integration by giving them certain political positions
at the local and national levels.

The government should also show a strong commitment to Aceh's
special autonomy. And apart from upholding the law, the
government should take action against corrupt officials to ensure
that development programs reach the poor in remote areas.

The writer attended a seminar on peace journalism in Penang,
Malaysia for four days until Aug. 7