Hostage releases depends on both rebels and TNI
Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post , Jakarta
More mediation would not lead to the release of civilians held by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) said on Monday.
Any release would depend solely on the will of the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the separatists, PMI secretary general Iyung Sukandar said.
Iyang said his organization and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had good reasons to suspend their efforts to mediate the release of the hostages. Other parties intending to take over the initiative would face the same problems.
"Both the TNI and GAM have spelled out their own conditions for the release of the hostages. They won't be reconciled, therefore no humanitarian organizations will be able to bridge the two," Iyang said on Monday.
The German-based Medical Emergency Rescue Committee (MerC), a non-governmental organization dealing with humanitarian missions, has offered to mediate a negotiation for the release of the hostages.
The proposal was filed by MerC Indonesia chairman Jose Rizal Jurnalis after the ICRC and PMI suspended its mediation role last week, pending an agreement on the conditions for the release.
Jose said GAM leaders had agreed to give his organization a mediation role, replacing the ICRC. He met recently with government officials to discuss the role.
"I have contacted (GAM commander of East Aceh) Ishak Daud and he has accepted my proposal. He, nevertheless, insisted on demanding a two-day ceasefire and the withdrawal of the troops from the Peureulak area," Jose told The Jakarta Post. Ishak is responsible for the captives.
Jose said he had also met Sudi Silalahi, who heads the government's negotiation team, who asked him to cooperate with PMI in the mission.
MerC, established in Indonesia in 1999, began its humanitarian mission in Maluku when sectarian conflict swept the islands. It also sent its volunteer to conflict-torn Poso in Central Sulawesi, Afghanistan and Iraq and has conducted missions in Aceh since 2001.
Ishak confirmed he had invited MerC to facilitate the negotiation.
About 100 civilians, including RCTI cameraman Fery Santoro, are being held hostage by GAM. Fery, his colleague Sori Ersa Siregar, their driver Rachmatsyah and two wives of Air Force officers, Cut Safrida and Cut Soraya, were initially held hostage at Ishak's camps.
The driver walked free in December last year, followed by the women last week. But Ersa was killed on Dec. 29 in what the military claimed was crossfire between troops and separatist rebels.
Ishak had earlier agreed to a mediation deal to release all of the captives but military rejected its conditions.
Meanwhile, Sudi said he would approve MerC's plan to mediate the release only if the NGO worked together with the PMI.
"I appreciate MerC's idea to mediate the release, but it must cooperate with the PMI. Once the two organizations reach an agreement, we will support their move, including providing protection for their workers and accepting a two-day limited ceasefire," Sudi said.