Govt, rebels face to face in Helsinki

Govt, rebels face to face in Helsinki

Agencies, Helsinki, Finland

Indonesian ministers and separatist rebels from Aceh met in Helsinki on Friday to discuss the cessation of three decades of fighting, in the wake of the tsunami disaster that devastated the province, but which inspired renewed peace efforts.

"We are going to have face-to-face talks now," Zaini Abdullah, foreign minister of the exiled leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), told Reuters on the way into the meeting.

"I am hopeful but it is still too early to say anything," he added.

The Stockholm-based GAM leaders and a top-level Indonesian delegation, led by chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto, met at a manor house near Helsinki for talks mediated by Finnish ex-President Martti Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative.

"The talks have started in a good spirit. A dialog is going on and the talks will continue throughout the day," Maria-Elena Cowell, a spokeswoman for Ahtisaari's Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) foundation, told AFP.

Cowell declined to give any further details about the deliberations, which have been shrouded in secrecy.

Indonesian government officials declined to comment on the meeting beyond confirming the fact that it was taking place.

The Helsinki deliberations, which are expected to continue through the weekend, are unlikely to go beyond formalizing a month-long cessation of hostilities.

"We have issued a unilateral declaration of cease-fire, so the relief organizations can carry out their work effectively for those in need of help," GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah told AFP earlier.

"What we hope to see now is reciprocity from the government of Indonesia ... this is an opportunity, and hopefully it will lead to something else later."

The aging Hasan di Tiro, the man GAM considers the rightful head of state of Aceh, told Reuters at his home in exile in Stockholm late on Thursday that his aim was independence.

"We have nothing to do with Java (Indonesia's main island where the capital is centered), Aceh is different," said the ailing octogenarian, who fled after declaring Aceh independent in 1976.

The government has meanwhile stated that it would reject any demand for independence for Aceh.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in Jakarta that the government was offering "special autonomy status" -- which GAM previously rejected. However, officials in Jakarta say GAM's negotiating position is now weak.

Susilo, who pledged in his 2004 election campaign to end the conflict, spoke of the "great momentum for us to really think of ending the conflict and to unite as brothers to further rebuild Aceh after it was hit by the tsunami". He believed there had been a "positive response" from GAM.

Peace efforts were disrupted 21 months ago, but after the disaster of Dec. 26, the two sides made cease-fire offers.

Ahtisaari, who helped broker peace in Kosovo, has been involved since late last year in efforts to restart a peace process that collapsed in May 2003 after both sides complained about each other's interpretation of a 2002 truce.

That prompted the Indonesian military's biggest offensive so far to crush GAM combined with martial law, which was replaced a year later by a state of emergency.