Govt must be firm on GAM

Govt must be firm on GAM

On Feb. 18, 2003 the following appeared in The Jakarta Post:
"Humam Hamid, an influential figure in Banda Aceh, said that the
truce had almost broken down, because of the absence of mutual
trust between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the security
authorities. This is caused by misinterpretation of the peace
accord."

The Henry Dunant Center (HDC), GAM and security authorities
should sit down together again to reach the same understanding of
the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) and its
implementation. After that the three sides should jointly
disseminate information about the peace accord to show their
commitment to establishing peace as well as avoiding confusion
among the Acehnese people.

The main hindrance was that both sides disseminated
information to their own camps according to their own
interpretation. Humam called on the three sides to stick to COHA,
step by step and article by article.

Although more than one month old, its significance is still
clear, important and binding. Another problem is that GAM still
feels strong and arrogant, thinking that the politicians are
backing it, when they indicate that military operations have not
been efficient, which has caused confusion within Armed Forces
ranks. The Military do not know what to do, while the security
situation rapidly deteriorates. GAM showed its arrogance by
refusing to talk. Then it agreed, but insisted on having the
talks abroad and the government, as expected, complied and
prepared Tokyo as the meeting place. GAM refused and insisted on
having talks in a neutral country. It tried again and again to
postpone everything, while continuing to influence the public.

I am afraid that the government will again consent to the
demands of GAM, instead of saying to GAM, "Do as we tell you or
we shall stop talking and take stern action."

In my humble opinion, if there are going to be talks again,
they should be held in Indonesia, because this is a domestic
problem and there is no need to involve strangers in our
household problems. I am sure that my government will be able to
solve this problem once and for all.

Be firm for once, so that this problem may be solved as soon
as possible and free ordinary people from their sufferings.
The government should know that GAM is playing for time, to
increase its strength by recruiting more soldiers and smuggling
weapons.

SOEGIH ARTO, Jakarta