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.