Helsinki peace talks hang in the balance

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".