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)