Helsinki peace talks hang in the balance

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian government should change its political stance in the ongoing peace talks in Finland in order to end 30 years of separatist fighting in Aceh and prevent the dialog from becoming deadlocked, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said on Thursday.

"If the Indonesian government sticks to its stance, what else can we do? If the peace talks end in deadlock, it is not our fault. The success of this peaceful effort is in the government's hands," GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said.

He was responding to chief security minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto's statement that the government could not accept GAM's key demand for the establishment of local political parties in Aceh.

"We (the government) can't provide more political privileges for Aceh. If we did, we would witness other regions across the country making similar demands," Widodo argued on Wednesday.

Indonesian law only recognizes national-scope political parties and they are not allowed to have any links with separatists or communists.

Widodo also said the government would consider declaring Aceh "in status quo" and immediately hold an "internal consolidation" to withdraw from the ongoing fifth round of peace talks in the Finnish capital of Helsinki, should GAM press ahead with their demands for local parties and self-government.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla reiterated the government's stance on Thursday saying that there must be no local political parties as demanded by the rebels.

In a very significant development in the talks, GAM dropped its long-held demand for an independent Aceh and agreed to continue the negotiations within the framework of the Indonesian unitary state.

"We have made many major compromises in our efforts to achieve peace in the talks. We now need to see similar compromises from the Indonesian government," Bakhtiar said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He said the Indonesian government should look for another approach, including designing a new law to enable the Acehnese people to have local political parties.

Such basic democratic rights are crucial for the people of Aceh, he added.

"We (GAM) have offered a major compromise by not bringing our claim for independence to the Helsinki negotiations. But we do not accept the status quo of so-called 'special autonomy', and that's why we have offered the compromise position of self- government as a way of resolving the Aceh conflict," he added.

The central government granted special autonomy to Aceh four years ago under Law No. 18/2001.

Meanwhile, Indonesian government negotiator and Minister of Information and Communications Sofyan Djalil said he hopes a final peace deal with the rebels could be signed in August.

"There are several options for political participation. We believe that after the amnesty everyone can participate in the political process," he told AFP in Helsinki.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla said both parties were still looking for the best solution to bridge their differences. "I wish the sides can find further progress," he said, as quoted by Antara.

The Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), which has been facilitating the talks, has said the current dialog should be the final informal meeting between the two warring parties, with their formal meeting scheduled for August.

Kalla urged both parties to stick to the schedule, and avoid any possible deadlock in the talks.

Despite their failure so far to reach a substantial agreement on the political participation issue, the delegates continued to claim that the ongoing talks were making "some progress".