Obstacles to peace remain in Aceh

Obstacles to peace remain in Aceh

The Nation
Asia News Network
Bangkok

The international community has welcomed the progress that the
Indonesian government and the rebels in Aceh have made towards
resolving their differences, as both sides have shown a
willingness to be flexible and make necessary concessions in
order to give the ongoing peace talks a real chance of success.
Credit should also go to the Finnish mediators for their
diplomatic finesse, which has won the trust of both parties, and
for their commitment to the resolution of this long-running
conflict, which has claimed more than 12,000 lives over the past
three decades.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has put aside demands for full
independence for the province and the Indonesian government has
said it would consider allowing a form of direct self-rule for
the restive province, which has suffered tremendously as a result
of the war of attrition that has been fought there.

Chief among other factors leading to the renewed negotiations
between the two sides has surely been the need to respond to the
devastation wrought in Aceh by the killer tsunami that on Dec. 26
killed about a quarter of a million of people around the region
in a matter of minutes.

Whether the just-ended round of peace talks in Helsinki
qualifies as a breakthrough remains to be seen, but both sides of
the dispute and the international community must not lose sight
of the fact that several hurdles still stand in the way of
achieving a lasting peace.

Despite the claims by both sides that progress towards peace
has been made, skirmishes between Indonesian soldiers and GAM
rebels are continuing on the ground, threatening to derail the
progress that has so far been made at the negotiating table.

There has to be a real effort by both sides to ensure that any
agreements reached at the peace meetings are respected and
implemented on the ground.

Moreover, as former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, the
chief negotiator, has pointed out, a cease-fire is only valid if
it can be monitored and enforced on the ground.

In the first round of talks, the two sides agreed to "refrain
from hostilities" while Aceh struggles to recover from the death
and destruction caused by the tsunami. Be that as it may, the
Indonesian army has confirmed it has killed more than 200 rebels
in the two months that have elapsed since the disaster.

No one has ever suggested that monitoring a cease-fire in this
restive province would be an easy task, even at this relatively
more friendly point in time. Sporadic fighting continues to
trouble the province even as hundreds of thousands of grief-
stricken Acehnese, many of them reduced to destitution, continue
to rely on large-scale reconstruction efforts sponsored by the
international community. Such work will likely remain necessary
for months or even years to come.

One potential stumbling block involves the fine print
regarding what GAM meant when it said it would be willing to
accept direct self-rule instead of full independence from
Indonesia.

A preliminary peace agreement reached in 2002 collapsed partly
because of the issue of how Jakarta and Aceh were to divide
proceeds from the extraction of natural gas, which the strife-
torn province possesses in abundance.

Jakarta is said to be sticking to a previous pledge of
granting a general amnesty to GAM fighters who agree to lay down
their arms, allowing them to return to Aceh. Jakarta maintains
that the formation of self-rule mechanisms should be through
democratic means.

But issues pertaining to changes in Indonesian electoral laws
to permit the participation of local political parties, as well
as the redeployment or withdrawal of Indonesian troops and the
possibility of international monitoring, could prove to be
troublesome, to the point where they could potentially make or
break the peace talks.

The next round of negotiations, the third to take place since
the tsunami struck, has been set for April.

Yet, the recent announcement by the Indonesian military that
one of its soldiers and two civilians had been killed when a
group of 30 rebels ambushed troops who were on their way to carry
out relief work in western Aceh is testimony that peace will not
come easy.

This should serve as a reminder that in any effort to settle a
long-standing dispute that has caused much suffering and
bitterness on both sides, the first and most vital step is to
stop the violence long enough so that the process of confidence-
building can proceed uninterrupted and become an accepted
behavioral norm.

Now is the time for the two sides to take this step in as
definitive a manner as possible.