Lemhanas slams Helsinki talks
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The National Resilience Institute (Lemhanas) has criticized the informal talks between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), urging the exclusion of foreign parties and saying the steps taken so far are unconstitutional.
Lemhanas Governor Ermaya Suradinata said on Monday the talks had crossed the line to become unconstitutional, with rebel group GAM wishing to establish a self-governing territory and a separate mechanism to govern the economy of the resource-rich province.
"I think the government should reconsider (pursuing) more talks, as this could give GAM the chance to internationalize the issue," he told legislators at a meeting with House of Representatives Commission I for defense and foreign affairs.
He said the talks, held in Finland's capital of Helsinki, should be held in Indonesia, as the issue was between the Indonesian government and its citizens.
"The Helsinki talks have also helped sustain the rebels' position in the eyes of the international (community), the European Union in particular, especially after the acquittal of their top brass by a court in Sweden for terror and separatism charges," said Ermaya.
The government and GAM have engaged in four rounds of talk over the course of the year in a bid to end decades-long armed conflict in the province, after the rebels launched a pro- independence movement in the 1970s, which has killed over 12,000 people.
Both parties have said that most issues blocking peace have been settled, except the major ones concerning Aceh's administrative status and a GAM demand to set up a local political party.
The talks were facilitated by the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), with GAM representatives including several foreigners.
Legislators have slammed the latest round of talks for failing to arrive at a final agreement, and forced the government to quickly impose a deadline for the conclusion of the talks.
They also criticized the inclusion of more foreign parties in the talks, a complaint that has apparently fallen on deaf ears.
The government said the fifth round of talks would commence on July 12, stressing that the talks were informal by nature and no outcomes were as yet legally binding.
Meanwhile, about 50 people rallied outside the House of Representatives to protest the House's objection to the peace talks in Helsinki.
They said the talks were producing significant results, and the inclusion of foreign parties in such a negotiation was not unusual.
The demonstrators urged both parties to suspend active hostilities for the duration of the talks, particularly as the province is struggling to establish normalcy after being devastated by last year's tsunami that killed over 128,000 Acehnese.