Govt told to seek peaceful, non-military settlement for Aceh

Tiarma Siboro and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Aceh politician Gazhali Abbas condemned on Friday the government's double standards in handling the prolonged Aceh conflict, saying that the military should end its attack on rebels in Cot Trieng, North Aceh, if the government was committed to signing the proposed peace accord.

He said the government should comply with MPR Decree No. VI/2002, which requires it to seek a peaceful settlement, instead of taking the military approach to solve the Aceh problem.

He said that most Acehnese had supported the measures the government had taken to promote dialogs between both sides, including the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) whose existence has been factually accepted through negotiations held overseas.

"The government should continue the persuasive approach, instead of using repression to win domestic (Acehnese) and international support and simultaneously persuade rebels to lay down their arms to go to the negotiating table," he said.

He also said the government should take strict action against legal violations committed by both rebels and soldiers.

Johnson Pandjaitan, a human rights activist of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI), agreed and said that the government, including security forces, should respect the peaceful negotiation facilitated by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC).

The military should show its strong commitment to sign the peace accord on Dec. 9 and support the government's persuasive approach to seek a peaceful solution to the Aceh problem through a dialog, he said.

Both Gazhali and Johnson further expressed pessimism that the two warring sides would agree to sign the peace accord on Dec. 9 since their military wings had yet to show readiness in laying down their weapons.

Meanwhile, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said that disarmament would become a contentious issue in the cease- fire mechanism.

Disarmament and cantonment will be a logical consequence of the peace deal, but both sides are still at odds over the matter, Hassan said.

Hassan said that the presence of a monitoring team, which will consist of participants from various countries, would be assurance that both the military and GAM were in compliance with the peace accord, including the disarmament issue.

"The presence of the monitoring team will assure the whole deal," he said.

Amid heightened tension between the military and GAM, two countries -- Japan and the U.S. -- planned to cosponsor the Preparatory Conference on Peace and Reconstruction in Aceh on Dec. 3 in Tokyo, which is aimed at establishing a trust fund for the reconstruction and development of Aceh.

"This is an effort to encourage GAM to return to the negotiation table, but the composition of the participants is still under discussion," Hassan said.