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.