Govt signals war as GAM says no to Joint Council meet

Govt signals war as GAM says no to Joint Council meet

Tiarma Siboro and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Hope for a peaceful solution to the Aceh issue faded on Thursday
when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) declined to attend a Joint
Council meeting to discuss violations of the Cessation of
Hostilities Agreement.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said GAM had sent a letter to the
government to announce that it would not attend the meeting.

GAM, according to Susilo, considers a Joint Council meeting at
this point to be unnecessary because the Joint Security Committee
(JSC), which is in charge of monitoring the implementation of the
peace agreement, "is able to handle the current situation in
Aceh".

Susilo said the government had decided to give GAM five days
to reverse its position.

The government requested the meeting after accusing GAM of
reneging on the peace agreement signed in December 2002.

Under a peace accord brokered by the Swiss-based Henry Dunant
Centre (HDC), the government and GAM agreed to halt all
hostilities in the province, where a decades-long armed conflict
has left more than 10,000 people dead, most of them innocent
civilians.

As part of the accord, GAM, which has been fighting for
independence for the resource-rich province since 1976, also
agreed to accept special autonomy as the sole basis for future
negotiations.

The movement also agreed to lay down its arms in a series of
stages to be completed by July 9, at which time GAM is expected
to have stored all of its weapons.

Under the accord, the government agreed to halt all military
operations in the province and redeploy its troops from offensive
to defensive positions.

Both sides, however, have failed to meet the timeline and
conditions agreed upon in the deal. GAM continues to nurture
aspirations of independence and has failed to lay down its arms,
while the government has not completely redeployed its troops to
defensive positions.

Susilo said the government considered GAM's refusal to attend
the Joint Council meeting as a sign that it had no intention of
complying with the accord.

According to the peace accord, any violation of the agreement
must be discussed within the JSC. Should the security committee
fail to resolve the violation, a Joint Council meeting may be
convened. If the council is unable to resolve the dispute, either
party is free to quit the accord.

"We have to prepare other plans ... that is military
operations to maintain the country's territorial integrity. I am
not saying that the operations will immediately solve the
problems in Aceh, but it is the last resort," Susilo said.

The minister said Indonesian Military chief Gen. Endriartono
Sutarto was scheduled to brief President Megawati Soekarnoputri
on any future military operations in Aceh during a limited
Cabinet meeting next week.

"Any military operations would be well planned in order to
avoid unnecessary human rights violations. These may be cloudy
days for the Acehnese, but believe me it is not doomsday," Susilo
said.

The security situation in Aceh has deteriorated and physical
threats against the international peace monitors in the province
have increased. At least three JSC offices have been attacked
recently by mobs of people angered by what they see as the JSC's
failure to stop extortion and abductions by members of GAM.

In Aceh, HDC representatives David Gorman would not confirm
GAM's decision not to attend the Joint Council meeting, saying
only that his organization would continue to seek a time for all
parties to sit down together and discuss crucial matters related
to the future of the peace agreement.

"Up until now the peace deal is still effective and I ask both
Indonesia and GAM to abide by the deal," Gorman told The Jakarta
Post on Thursday.

He also said that the peace agreement "does not include an
independence option but focuses on peaceful efforts to settle the
conflict".

Meanwhile, Teungku Jamaika, GAM spokesman for the Pasee
region, said his group would honor the peace deal because "after
more than 26 years of fighting dialog is the only solution".

"If armed conflict continues to take place here, it is because
we have to defend ourselves from attack.

"We are ready to challenge the government should it insist on
launching military operations here ... but the world will see
that it is not GAM that has decided to withdraw from the peace
accord," Jamaika said.