ICRC suspends Aceh mediation

ICRC suspends Aceh mediation

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on
Wednesday it had put on ice its role in attempting to mediate the
release of civilians being held hostage by Free Aceh Movement
separatists.

The move by the ICRC opens the door to the Indonesian Military
to use force to try to free the hostages.

The ICRC said it would resume its mediation role only after
the TNI and GAM reached an agreement on the release of the
hostages.

"The Indonesian Red Cross and the ICRC have suspended their
involvement until both sides to the conflict arrive at an
agreement," ICRC spokeswoman Fortuna Alvariza said.

She said the ICRC was not actually directly involved in the
negotiations but was acting only as a facilitator.

"Our job was to facilitate the exchange of messages, but we
have seen that neither side was willing to find some common
ground," Alvariza said.

The government and GAM are now blaming each other for the
ICRC's move.

Lt. Gen. Sudi Silalahi, the secretary to Coordinating Minister
for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said
the negotiations had been temporarily halted after GAM guerrillas
in the field had failed to follow their commanders' orders in
Stockholm to free the civilians.

"We (the government) had initially negotiated with someone
called Mansor to discuss the releases. At first, the negotiations
went quite well.

"But in the middle of the negotiations, GAM replaced Mansor
with Ishak Daud who later rejected the order of his leaders to
free the hostages," said Sudi, who also chairs the government
team trying to arrange the hostage's release.

He was referring to Teungku Mansor, GAM spokesman in East
Aceh, and Teungku Ishak Daud, the GAM commander in Peurelak, East
Aceh.

However, Ishak recently said the ICRC had offered him an
unacceptable proposal to release only three of the hostages --
RCTI cameraman Ferry Santoro and the Air Force officers' wives,
Cut Soraja and Cut Farida.

The ICRC also proposed that GAM accept a two-day cease-fire in
only one subdistrict, despite GAM's demand that government troops
be withdrawn from Puereulak regency for the duration of the
cease-fire.

"It was a one-sided arrangement. The ICRC told us that it
would withdraw from its facilitating role if I rejected the
conditions," Ishak told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Sudi said the government could not accept GAM's demand for a
two-day cease-fire in all parts of Aceh, particularly in East
Aceh, and for the military to withdraw its soldiers from those
areas.

Around 100 civilian hostages are being held by GAM, including
Ferry and the two Air Force officers' wives.

Late last month, RCTI reporter Ersa Siregar was shot dead by
TNI troops during a gun battle with the separatists who had held
him for more than six months. It remains unclear what the precise
circumstances of his death were, however.