Peace talks between govt and GAM should lead to peace in Aceh: Leaders
Peace talks between govt and GAM should lead to peace in Aceh: Leaders
Ibnu Mat Noor and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post,
Banda Aceh/Jakarta
A cessation of hostilities, law enforcement and corruption
eradication are a prerequisite to the reconstruction of postwar
Aceh, leading Acehnese figures and scholars say.
Tengku Yusni Sabi, director of the postgraduate program at the
Ar-Raniry Islamic Teaching Institute in Banda Aceh, said problems
in Aceh would not solved simply by signing the proposed peace
accord.
"Aceh will need funds to get the conflict stopped. The most
important things are that the law must be upheld and all human
rights abuses in the past must be brought to court. There will
never be true reconciliation in Aceh without these three
important factors.
"The rebuilding of infrastructure damaged during the war and
the economic development program will follow suit. Not only the
international community but also Acehnese people want to see
peace reign in Aceh," he told The Jakarta Post here on Wednesday.
A number of foreign countries, including Japan, the United
States and Australia, and the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank expressed a commitment during a meeting in Tokyo
on Tuesday to give financial support to the rebuilding of Aceh
after the signing of the peace accord in Geneva on Dec. 9.
Yusni, who chairs Security Monitoring Team for Aceh, suggested
the government and GAM leaders give people hope for a peaceful
settlement.
He said the most serious problem the international community
should address immediately was the education of children. A large
percentage of children in the province no longer attend school as
thousands of school buildings have been destroyed during the 26-
year-old war.
"If the tens of thousands of school dropouts are not well
managed, a new conflict could erupt in the next decade," Yusni
said, adding Aceh would face a lost generation unless education
was addressed.
Separately, director of the Lhokseumawe College of Technology,
Yuhanis Yunus, called on the Henry Dunant Center (HDC) to not
only facilitate peace talks between the two conflicting sides but
also help alleviate the conflict's impact, such as providing
social rehabilitation for Acehnese refugees.
A community leader in East Aceh regency, Bachtiar Harun,
concurred and said all sides, including the HDC, should pay
serious attention to the true cessation of hostilities to avoid
any violence in the future.
Yuhanis said dozens of children and their parents were still
taking refuge in shelters as it was impossible for them to live
in their villages, which were besieged by security personnel.
A HDC official in Geneva, who asked for anonymity, told The
Jakarta Post that the Indonesian government and GAM had indicated
they would attend the Dec. 9 Geneva meeting for the signing of
the peace agreement.
"We are still planning the Dec. 9 meeting, and there is a
strong indication both sides will come for the signing of the
agreement," the official said.
The official said that despite the celebration of GAM's
anniversary and Hassan Tiro's independence speech, no changes
were made to the original schedule.
"We are still confirming the names of the delegation members
from both sides and they will send much larger delegations than
before," the official added.
Regarding the contentious issues of the agreement, he said
that both sides had agreed to the principles of the peace deal.
"There will be discussions of the details of the agreement on
Dec. 9, but the final document looks ready for the signing," he
said.
He said that though the meeting would be in Geneva, there was
still no confirmation about whether Tiro would attend.