Peace in Aceh, how soon?

President Abdurrahman Wahid's assurance that the unrest in Aceh, this country's westernmost province, will before long belong in the past cannot have failed to hearten many Indonesians, not in the least those tens of thousands, security officers and ordinary people alike, whose lives have in one way or another been sadly affected by the decade-long strife in the territory.

"I can now see a process to end the continuing conflict, although in most parts of Aceh there are still armed conflicts," the President said on Tuesday in an address in Sabang during his first visit to Aceh as President of Indonesia. On an earlier occasion, Abdurrahman even mentioned April as the time when he expected the violence in the province to be over, thus appearing to have a definite timetable for solving the problem.

Unfortunately, events of the last few days have watered down much of whatever optimism the public may have shared with the President. In one of the most glaring of recent incidents -- one that shocked even many Indonesians sympathizing with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels -- unidentified gunmen threw grenades and sprayed a village mosque in the Bireun regency of the province with bullets. Mondays' incident killed six marines and left others seriously wounded.

At the same time, the death toll on both sides of the conflict kept rising as clashes between Free Aceh Movement insurgents and government troops continued throughout the province during the week. To further dim the hopes of a speedy settlement, government reports that 310 people claiming to be GAM members had surrendered were offset by growing demands among the population for an independence referendum -- an absolute prerequisite to dialog for many Acehnese, but a possibility that President Abdurrahman's government has already ruled out. Wide-ranging autonomy and imposition in the province of syariah (Islamic law) is as far as the government is willing to go.

Considering those circumstances, a dialogue toward peace in Aceh may be much further away from being realized than the President seems to expect. During his visit to the province this week, security considerations forced Abdurrahman to skip the Aceh mainland (and a planned face-to-face exchange with religious and community leaders in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital).

For certain, whatever the circumstances, it is of vital importance that a speedy solution to the Aceh problem be found, since it is only through a genuine meeting of minds that a lasting solution can be found. Continued dallying can only further complicate the situation, with potentially dangerous consequences for the nation's unity and cohesion.

Given all this, and because Indonesians deserve to know where precisely they stand on the Aceh issue, it is essential that the President makes clear his statement of an expected speedy solution of the conflict. Does Abdurrahman's stated timetable mean he has a solid plan to settle the problem? Or is it a hope expressed aloud?

He wouldn't be Abdurrahman Wahid if he didn't keep his optimism under whatever circumstances. Indonesians certainly can call themselves fortunate in this crucial era of democratic reform to be led by a modest, populist President who is not only capable, but has a good sense of optimism and humor. In this case, though, President Abdurrahman owes it to the people to be serious and to tell them exactly what their country's current position is on Aceh, what is being planned, what has been done and what the expectations are for the immediate future.