NGOs move to save peace agreement in Aceh

NGOs move to save peace agreement in Aceh

Nani Farida and
Tiarma Siboro
The Jakarta Post
Banda Aceh/Jakarta

Activists representing 41 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)
in Aceh have launched a month-long campaign to save the five-
month-old peace agreement that has nearly ended almost three
decades of armed conflict there.

Risman A. Rahman, coordinator of the NGO-HAM human rights
watchdog, said for the whole of April the organizations would
call for awareness of the civilian community in the war-torn
province about the peace agreement signed by the Indonesian
government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in talks brokered by the
Henry Dunant Centre in Geneva on Dec. 9 last year.

The campaign, calls for a peaceful, violent-free month to save
the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) and the people of
Aceh. It was declared on Tuesday at the Joint Security Committee
(JSC) office in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh.

"We realize that if the peace agreement fails, the civilian
community will suffer the most," Risman said.

During the campaign, the activists will create a service to
receive complaints of violations of the peace accord, organize
discussions and call on both Jakarta and GAM to comply with the
peace agreement.

He said the move was prompted by demonstrations in several
parts of the natural-resource rich province against JSC.

Risman said he suspected that these were attempts to break
down the truce, as reflected by the rallies, widespread illegal
fees imposed on people and the creation of militia groups
apparently opposed to GAM.

He admitted that the peace agreement was fragile due to its
weak enforcement, but at least it had significantly curbed the
amount of violence.

"It's wiser therefore to criticize and improve the
implementation of the truce, rather than trying to tear it
apart," he said.

Another rights activist, Rufriadi, said the promotion of the
peace agreement had not given the civilian community enough of a
role to play. Instead civilian involvement ends up in arrests for
alleged provocation, he said.

He was referring to the disappearance of NGO activists Muklis
and Zulfikar, whom rights activists claimed as victims of
abduction by military personnel.

Rufriadi said six other activists had been targeted by
security authorities for criticizing the weak implementation of
the peace agreement.

The accord requires the military to relocate to defensive
positions and the National Police to reformulate Mobile Brigade
personnel into ordinary police officers. It also calls for GAM to
lay down its arms over a five-month period between Feb. 9 and
July 9.

The NGOs move contradicted the government's fresh warning that
the peace deal could break down because of repeated violations by
GAM.

Speaking after a weekly meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday,
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono said the government would ask JSC to intervene
in and correct the implementation of the peace accord due to the
violations.

"I will invite HDC chairman Martin Griffith and GAM
representative Malik Mahmud for a meeting here within a week to
talk about steps to be taken to respond to the current situation
which has apparently worsened," Susilo said.

Both Martin and Malik live in Switzerland.

Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, Indonesia's chief negotiator who
attended the meeting, refused to comment on it. He just said: "I
wish the government could be wise."