Peace agreement raises doubts, hopes in Aceh

Peace agreement raises doubts, hopes in Aceh

Reuters/Banda Aceh

People in Aceh reacted cautiously on Monday to a deal aimed at
ending 30 years of civil war in the Indonesian province
devastated by the Dec. 26 tsunami.

Unlike the agreement reached in late 2002 that had Acehnese
crowding newspaper stalls for the details, the new deal failed to
distract people from going about their business as usual.

The huge black-and-white Baiturrahman mosque that dominates
the center of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, had a routine
schedule of prayers, not the special programs for the peace deal
of 2002.

That year's agreement fell apart in a few months with the
government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels blaming the other
for the breakdown. And some in the province fear the latest deal
negotiated in Finland will follow that pattern.

"All this is only promises, just like the promises from
previous negotiations," newspaper agent Joni Sukandar told
Reuters in Banda Aceh.

Tengku Mustafai, a religious figure in North Aceh, believed
that armed conflicts between the military and rebels would
escalate as a peace agreement drew nearer to implementation,
derailing the process.

"Although there were peace talks facilitated by the Sweden-
based Henry Dunant Center, the murders and abductions remained
rampant. People at large still suffered from the conflict and I
fear that this pattern will repeat," Tengku Mustafai told The
Jakarta Post.

The Helsinki peace deal was the top story in Aceh's leading
newspaper on Monday, but its editorial of the day was on bird
flu. The peace talks that began in January in Helsinki have
failed to stop sporadic clashes between the military and GAM
rebels and in the almost 30 years of fighting some 15,000 people,
mostly civilians, are estimated to have died.

"I'm happy to hear the news of peace," said elementary school
teacher Rusmini, 35. "But this is a normal thing. I've heard this
before, so let's see how it goes," she said at her school in
Peukan Bada on the outskirts of Banda Aceh.

Of the school's 300 students, only 60 survived the tsunami,
which flattened the school buildings. Rusmini and her students
held their Monday lessons in a tent.

The killer waves left about 170,000 dead or missing in Aceh
and many hope that the peace deal will smooth the way for the $5
billion rebuilding program, which relies heavily on foreign
donors.

"With this peace agreement all of our rehabilitation efforts
can go ahead more smoothly," Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, the
Indonesian head of the reconstruction effort, told Reuters.

Early in the talks, GAM dropped its demand for independence,
and in the fifth session ending on Sunday the government moved to
accommodate GAM's request for political participation in Aceh.

However, details are still fuzzy on the political side of the
deal and some other points ahead of a scheduled signing in
Helsinki on Aug. 15.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla has indicated that GAM
could move to set up an Aceh-based national party within existing
laws, and a purely local party for GAM could come later.

The latter would require approval by the House of
Representatives, where the administration of President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and Kalla have a majority coalition, albeit a
shaky one, which is not necessarily willing to grant every
government request.

Masduki Baidlowi, a deputy in of the Nation Awakening Party, a
swing faction in the House, said in Jakarta: "What the Indonesian
government and GAM have achieved in Helsinki is a big result."

"I am really optimistic that it will work," he told Reuters,
adding that GAM should be allowed to organize politically so long
as it did not push for the breakup of the Indonesian state.