Gus Dur to visit Aceh after meeting Clinton

Gus Dur to visit Aceh after meeting Clinton

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid defied calls on
Wednesday to promptly visit Aceh. Instead he is dispatching his
Cabinet ministers to meet with public figures in the restive
province this weekend.

Abdurrahman, who is scheduled to fly to the United States on
Thursday for a meeting with President Bill Clinton and also for
medical treatment, intends to visit Aceh later this month.

No date has been set for the visit, but aides said it would be
after his return from the United States next week, and after he
had inaugurated the congress of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in the East
Java town of Kediri on Nov. 21.

The President, popularly known as Gus Dur, has been widely
criticized for embarking on a foreign tour -- he returned on
Wednesday after a five-day tour of Southeast Asia -- when a major
crisis was developing in Aceh.

He also came under strong criticism for remarks he made during
his foreign tour in which he suggested that he supported the
referendum demands in Aceh.

More than one million people took part in a rally in Banda
Aceh, the province's capital, on Monday to send the strongest
message yet to Jakarta of their demands for a self-determination
referendum.

Heading the Cabinet delegation to Aceh this weekend is
Hasballah M. Saad, the State Minister of Human Rights Affairs and
a prominent Aceh human rights campaigner before his appointment
to the administration.

Abdurrahman held a meeting with senior Cabinet members to
discuss the Aceh situation on Wednesday. Also taking part were
Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri and Amien Rais, the Speaker
of the People's Consultative Assembly.

Amien told reporters that Hasballah had been ordered to pave
the way for a dialog between the President and Aceh leaders.

Amien said the leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which
had been waging an armed insurgency for a separate state, should
be invited to the dialog.

"All sides in Aceh must be invited to seek the best solution
for Aceh," he said.

Hasballah told a media briefing that he had only one mission
during his visit to Aceh on Saturday: To listen.

"I have no specific instructions or any message (from the
President) to bring to Aceh. I was only told to listen to the
people of Aceh," he said.

The delegation will include State Minister of the Empowerment
of Women Khofifah Indar Parawansa, Minister of Housing and
Regional Development Erna Witoelar and Minister of Religious
Affairs M. Tolchah Hasan.

Separately, Gen. Wiranto, the Coordinating Minister for
Security and Political Affairs, who reported on the developments
in Aceh at the meeting, said afterwards that the government
should respond immediately to Monday's mass rally.

"The protesters want an immediate but proper response from the
government," he said.

"Any solution to the Aceh problem must not go against the
Constitution," he said in a veiled criticism against the
President's publicly stated support for the referendum.

Wiranto said the government should implement the new laws on
regional autonomy and on regional revenue sharing to show to the
people of Aceh its genuine desire to improve their welfare.

The former military chief said the government should send
police officers in place of troops to maintain peace and order.

He also said that the government should prosecute all security
personnel and civilians who committed human rights abuses.

A state-sponsored inquiry into allegations of human rights
abuses had been scheduled to present its findings to the
President this week.

Members of the commission said they had uncovered enough
evidence to bring top ranking military officers to court for
their role in the alleged atrocities.

Muslim leaders in Aceh, meanwhile, said the President was fast
running out of time because tension was building and could reach
its climax on Dec. 4, the anniversary of GAM.

"Aceh is hoping for an immediate response," Tengku Mukhtar
Wahab, head of Darussalamah Islamic boarding school, said in
Sigli.

The Muslim leaders differed with GAM, saying that they
welcomed the visit by the President, who like them is an ulema,
to the province.

In Semarang, Syafii Maarief, the chairman of Muhammadiyah,
warned that given current emotional feelings, the majority of
Acehnese would opt for independence if given the chance.

Rather than holding a referendum, the government should try to
deal with the causes of their discontent, Syafii said.

"The government cannot make hasty decisions," he said.

The new military Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Agus
Widjaja said in Bandung that the military would abide by whatever
political decision regarding Aceh was made by the government.
(02/04/43/51/har/edt/emf/prb/rms)