JSC announces truce violations

JSC announces truce violations

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh

The Joint Security Committee (JSC) announced here on Saturday
four more serious violations of the peace agreement to end 26
years of fighting in Aceh province, and blamed them mostly on
government security forces.

The committee overseeing the truce signed on Dec. 9 in Geneva
said it had recorded three "very serious" violations and one
"serious" breach of the accord.

The announcement was made at around 6 p.m. after the rebel
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) walked out of a routine meeting with the
JSC in a protest against the committee for not publicly releasing
the findings of its investigations into these violations.

The investigations were actually completed last Thursday.

The JSC announcement came against the backdrop of a statement
made by Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who warned that the peace deal between
Jakarta and GAM was on brink of a breakdown as GAM continued to
disseminate lies among the Aceh people that the truce would lead
to a referendum for independence.

Susilo said the campaign was a serious violation and the
government was preparing a contingency plan to anticipate the
breakdown of the peace agreement.

Under the agreement, a serious violation of the truce is
defined as something that could harm the peace process in Aceh by
causing significant losses to either side, or civilians.

Meanwhile, a very serious violation is defined as violence
that could endanger the peace process in the resource rich
province by causing death, serious injury, permanent disability
or property damage to either side, or to civilians.

The latest violations announced by the JSC included a shooting
incident at Lamno village in West Aceh on Jan. 25, in which a
rebel was shot dead by soldiers, who also wounded another
separatist.

The JSC blamed the military for this "very serious" violation
of the truce.

Another "very serious" violation was blamed on the rebels who
launched a deadly attack at Manggamat village in South Aceh on
Dec. 22, killing two Mobile Brigade (Brimob) paramilitary police
troopers and wounded another two.

The third "very serious" violation took place when soldiers
killed a civilian identified as Jamaluddin in Lueng Bata village
in Aceh Besar on Jan. 8.

The forth violation was categorized as "serious", and involved
the killing of another civilian, identified as Husaini M. Yusuf,
in the town of Langsa, East Aceh, on Jan. 10.

The last two incidents involving the deaths of the two
civilians were being investigated by the police and military
police in Aceh, who promised to present their findings to the
JSC. No date was given for this.

"I am again very much honored in producing verdicts for
another four cases today (Saturday)," Maj. Gen. Tanungsak
Tuvinun, senior envoy of the JSC, said when announcing the truce
violations in a statement.

The announcement brings the number of investigated violations
to seven, with the perpetrators also being made public.

The monitoring team found that GAM was responsible for three
of the seven serious violations of the truce, while the security
forces were blamed for the remaining four cases.

No legal or other sanctions have been imposed on either side
for their respective breaches of the truce.

Tuvinun said there were no outside parties meddling in the JSC
findings.

"I personally review each of these cases in detail without any
intervention or influence from anyone else," he said.

"These decisions are made based on the available evidence and
all the circumstances. I always keep in my mind the benefit to
the success of our peace process ... I am convinced that both GAM
and the Indonesian government take these incidents very
seriously," he added.

Meanwhile, David Gorman of the HDC said: "Both parties
recognized that there would be problems, and that the conflict
won't be solved overnight. What's most encouraging is that both
parties are addressing the actions of their respective members on
the ground".

The truce has significantly reduced the bloodshed in Aceh,
which has seen 26 years of separatist fighting, but sporadic
violence has continued since the signing of the accord.