Govt plans settlement mechanism for Aceh

Govt plans settlement mechanism for Aceh

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is now focused on formulating a dispute settlement
mechanism, if violence arises after the peace deal with the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) has been signed.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security
Affairs Widodo AS said on Tuesday that the mechanism was crucial
to prevent either side from making a decision to immediately call
off the hard-earned peace deal if a dispute occurred.

"I think there must be rules and a mechanism on how to resolve
possible disputes. (We'll) formulate this (the dispute settlement
mechanism)," Widodo told reporters as quoted by Antara.

He said that through the mechanism, any dispute would be
resolved in stages before a final decision was made.

His statement came amid reports that a village head in Aceh
was shot on Sunday evening, the latest deadly incident before the
official signing of the peace accord between the government and
GAM on Aug. 15 in Helsinki.

AFP reported that M. Nasir, the head of Lhok Sialangcut
village in South Aceh, was shot dead at his home in front of his
wife and children.

GAM and the TNI each took turns blaming the other.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) accused three GAM rebels of
being behind the attack. Head of the local district military
command Lieutenant Colonel Jamhur Ismail was quoted as saying
that the three were among 13 rebels who went to Nasir's house and
are believed to be followers of local rebel leader Annawi.

But GAM denied the accusations, with one official saying that
the TNI statement was part of its efforts to sabotage the Aug. 15
peace agreement.

The current peace process was a result of the last peace talks
that finished in Helsinki on July 17, in which GAM agreed to drop
its decades-long demand for independence of the oil-rice Aceh
province, but in return the rebels would, among other things, be
given amnesty and the Acehnese people would be allowed to have
full political representation by forming local political parties.

The peace talks were made more urgent following the Dec. 26
tsunami, which killed over 129,000 people in Aceh and destroyed
much of the coastal infrastructure.

The last truce, agreed upon in December 2002, collapsed six
months later, partly due to continuing violence, with both sides
blaming the other. That is the situation that ostensibly led the
government to impose martial law and launch a huge military
offensive against the rebels in May 2003, which further increased
the number of victims in the more than 30 years of conflict to
more than 15,000 fatalities.

Elsewhere, Widodo said that the dispute settlement mechanism
was expected to be completed before Aug. 15. This mechanism
would provide the basis for the foreign monitors tasked to
oversee the implementation of the peace deal in Aceh.

Peace monitors from the European Union and members countries
of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) will
supervise the implementation of the peace accord.

Their tasks will include overseeing the disarmament of rebels
and the withdrawal of TNI troops once the peace pact is signed.

Foreign monitors assigned to supervise the peace deal in 2002
were forced to withdraw due to escalating violence targeting
their district offices.