Military option not the best solution for Aceh: Minister
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Voicing an opinion at odds with that of other government officials, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Monday that the military option was not the best solution to settle problems in the restive province of Aceh.
Speaking to journalists on Monday, Hassan said that Indonesia should be more flexible in dealing with Aceh as the military option was no longer the best answer.
Hassan underlined that a military approach to deal with the separatist movement was legitimate, but Indonesia should, at the same time, forge a dialog with the Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM).
He made the remarks in response to the government's plan to revive the Iskandar Muda Military Command (abolished in the early 1980s), on the grounds that the existence of a separate military command would reduce the central government's interference in security affairs in Aceh.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri, who has the final say and has reportedly given a "positive response" to the plan, is expected to announce her decision in the near future.
"The problem is that Indonesia lacks flexibility to combine approaches to settle the separatist movement. In the end there should be a combination of law enforcement, economic approaches and dialog," Hassan said.
"We should learn from the Philippines, namely that the military option is not the only way; I do not believe that the military option is the best solution for dealing with the separatist movement," he added.
The government's plan to reestablish the military command in Aceh also met more resistance on Monday, this time from a human rights group, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF).
The groups said in separate statements that the plan would worsen human rights abuses rather than restore security and order as the government claimed.
"The plan must be rejected because it would only repeat the mistakes made by the Soeharto regime in the past when dealing with Aceh," said Hendardi, head of the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI).
"The Megawati administration is doomed to fail because reviving the military command means repeating Soeharto's mistakes," Hendardi said.
The PBHI claimed that history proved that military institutions in the regions were established to support the military's desire to maintain its dominant political role.
"This plan will reopen the doors for the military to come back into the political arena and stall the democratization process," Hendardi said.
The plan to revive the Aceh military command has raised questions about the military's promise to reduce its political and territorial roles.
It comes at a time when the military has abolished some powerful positions, such as the head of sociopolitical and territorial affairs post, from its organizational structure.
Hendardi pointed out that East Timor's secession from Indonesia and the escalating violence in Irian Jaya and Aceh were all evidence that the security approach did not pay.
The key to a solution of the Aceh question was, according to the PBHI, a justice and prosperity -- not security -- approach
"The impunity that the military and police enjoy in Aceh has destroyed the Acehnese people's trust in the government," he said.
"Jakarta is not sensitive to what the Acehnese need ... the people are still open to dialogue," Kontras' executive Ori Rahman said.
ASNLF spokesman Tgk. Sofyan Dawod charged that the government were trying to make it appear that the military command was being reestablished at the behest of the Acehnese people.
Dawod said that pro-Jakarta Acehnese leaders like Governor Abdullah Puteh, who came to Jakarta to request the reestablishment of the military command, could not claim they represented the people and, in fact, only represented themselves.
"Abdullah Puteh should explain his stance to the people. Otherwise he will have to face the consequences of his actions," Dawod said in a statement.