Hopes high for Aceh peace after historic meeting

Hopes high for Aceh peace after historic meeting

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid expressed hope on
Friday that the informal meeting between his aide Bondan Gunawan
and Aceh rebel leader Tengku Abdullah Syafi'ie would give a boost
to the peace process in the restive territory.

Describing the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) activists as his own
brothers, Abdurrahman said he had ordered the military, police
and civil servants in the province to work together in creating
peace there.

"However if there is no progress until a certain deadline, we
will take measures, because we can not just let it intensify.
This also applies to other places in the country, because we
badly need the flow of foreign investment into Indonesia," said
Abdurrahman in a dialog after the customary Friday prayer in a
mosque near his private residence in Ciganjur, South Jakarta.

Acting State Secretary Bondan Gunawan paid an unprecedented
visit to Syafi'ie at a GAM base in Geumpang Tiga district in
Pidie, some 100 kilometers east of the provincial capital Banda
Aceh on Thursday.

Abdurrahman praised Syafi'ie for his reception of Bondan, who
brought messages from the President.

"I hope he can meet my request. But it is just a request,
which may be fulfilled or not. What we want is that the problems
in Aceh can be well settled," the President said.

Separately, Bondan said on Friday he could understand the Aceh
people's frustration at the central government, including the
feeling that their land was still occupied by Indonesia.

"Our government system (in Aceh) worked precisely like that in
the previous colonial system," Bondan said after meeting with the
President at the Bina Graha presidential office.

Bondan said people should not hope for too much from his
meeting with the GAM commander saying Aceh's 32-year tragedy
could not end just after a 20-minute dialog.

"My capacity was also not as a negotiator there," Bondan said.

House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung welcomed the
historic meeting.

"We appreciate the meeting as helping to find a solution to
the Aceh problem," Akbar, who also chairs the Golkar Party, said.

He said that GAM's presence was an undisputable reality in
Aceh and that all talks about the territory's future should
involve the rebel group.

"But the unitary state of Indonesia cannot be compromised. We
can bargain with other demands," Akbar said.

In Banda Aceh, the unprecedented meeting raised hopes among
Acehnese leaders that the prolonged conflict might be put to an
end.

"We hope the friendly and warm meeting between Bondan Gunawan
and Abdullah Syafi'ie will be followed by the troops and
personnel at the lower level, so there will be no more fighting
between warring camps," said Aceh chief of Muhamaddiyah Tengku
Imam Suja.

"The encounter must be ensued with higher level talks between
President Abdurrahman Wahid and GAM leader Hasan Tiro if the
government intends to speed up the process of restoring peace and
order," he said.

Chairman of the Human Rights Care Forum Syaifuddin Bantasyam,
however, said that peace efforts entirely depended on both
parties.

"It is up to the government and GAM to keep their words," he
said.

He added that Thursday's meeting did not surprise him, saying
Syafi'ie had previously met another Cabinet member, State
Minister of Human Rights Hasballah M. Saad.

After the landmark meeting, security personnel overnight
raided four villages searching for rebels. AFP quoted residents
as saying that four truckloads of soldiers from the Army
Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) went from village to village
in Gleumpang Tiga, assaulting people and rounding up men.

The soldiers first appeared in Pulo Lhungtheuea about 3 a.m.
on Thursday, where they beat three people they suspected of being
rebels, residents there said. (50/edt/prb/jun)