Govt under pressure to save Aceh peace

Govt under pressure to save Aceh peace

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With the two-week deadline set for Aceh rebels to accept terms
for peace talks coming closer, the Indonesian government is
facing mounting pressure to save the truce it signed last year.

The Japanese government has sent Senior Vice Minister Tetsuro
Yano to Jakarta to call on Indonesia to promote a peaceful
settlement in Aceh, which has seen the return of violence over
the past few months.

Speaking after a meeting with Coordinating Minister for
Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Yano
said Tokyo reiterated its willingness to facilitate a Joint
Council meeting between the government and the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) aimed at salvaging the peace.

Japan was considering providing additional funds to
reconstruct and rehabilitate Aceh, but Yano underlined that it
would depend on the development of the peace process. He said the
Japanese government had already disbursed some US$8 million for
the reconstruction program in Aceh since the warring parties
signed the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) in Geneva
last December.

Accompanying Yano during the meeting was Japanese Ambassador
to Indonesia Yutaka Iimura.

Japan, along with the United States, the European Union and
the World Bank, are the co-chairs of the Tokyo Preparatory
Conference on Peace and Reconstruction in Aceh. The donors have
upped the pressure on both Indonesia and GAM to give peace a
chance.

Jakarta canceled its participation in a meeting last week
aimed at settling disputes over the implementation of the peace
agreement, which was scheduled for April 25 in Geneva, after GAM
insisted on moving back the date to April 27. Indonesia had
earlier proposed that the meeting take place in Tokyo, but GAM
rejected this.

No agreement has been reached on the date and venue of the
meeting as GAM continues to reject Indonesian government
conditions that the rebels accept the special autonomy package in
Aceh and disarm themselves.

Also on Thursday, a group of Acehnese figures grouped in the
Care for Aceh Forum met with Vice President Hamzah Haz to warn
the government of a breach of the peace deal if it launched a
military operation in the natural resource-rich province.

The delegation was led by the forum's chairman, Ismail Hassan
Metareum. Hamzah succeeded Ismail as the United Development Party
chairman in 1999.

A forum member, Hasballah M. Saad, a former state minister for
human rights, asserted that a military approach would only
aggravate the problem in Aceh. He also asked national leaders to
refrain from making comments supporting the use of force to deal
with the separatist problem.

Separately, the Indonesian government's chief negotiator
Wiryono Sastrohandoyo said after attending a ministerial meeting
on Aceh that the Joint Council meeting could be held at any time.

"The government has shown the wisdom of patience by giving a
two-week deadline for GAM to return to the negotiating table," he
said.

The meeting, chaired by Susilo, discussed the government
preparations for operations to provide humanitarian aid, enforce
the law, reinstate administrative functions and restore order in
Aceh.

Also present at the meeting were Coordinating Minister for the
Economy Dorodjatun Kuntjoro-Jakti, Coordinating Minister for
People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, Minister of Finance Boediono,
Director General of State Budgeting Anshari Ritonga and the
Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto

In Banda Aceh, State Minister for Information and
Communications Syamsul Mu'arif said the government was pondering
imposing a military or civilian emergency in Aceh should the
dialog failed.

"Should all measures fail then the government will impose a
state of civil emergency or martial law in Aceh," he told local
government officials as quoted by Antara.

Tension increased in the province on Thursday, where at least
three armed clashes between government troops and the rebels
erupted separately, killing a GAM member, two civilians and
injuring two other people, including a soldier, First Lt. A.
Yatim.

The military and GAM accused each other of being responsible.

Later in the day, some 5,000 people staged a rally in front of
the Central Aceh legislature in the regency's capital city of
Takengon, demanding a security operation for the sake of national
integrity.

The pro-Indonesian demonstrators also demanded the local
administration to pay some Rp 500 million (US$55,000) in
compensation for money that had been extorted from them by GAM.