Pressure mounts for govt, GAM to sign peace accord
Nani Farida The Jakarta Post Banda Aceh/Jakarta
Pressure is mounting for the government and secessionist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to sign a peace agreement to put an end to decades-long bloody conflicts in the country's westernmost province.
Around 3,000 people from Banda Aceh and neighboring Aceh Besar regency prayed for peace outside the Grand Baiturrahman Mosque on Thursday, for the second time in the past four days.
Thousands of Muslim women and men began to flock to the province's largest mosque at 8 a.m. to join the public prayers that were also attended by Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, chairman of the local legislature Muhammad Yus and a number of ulemas and public figures.
A number of banners were on display around the mosque, expressing the people's desire for peace in the province, where GAM has been fighting for independence since 1976. Over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, are believed to have been killed since then.
Some of the banners read: "Peace, peace, when will you come?", "We want to live 1,000 years more", and "End violence in Aceh".
Dressed in Muslim attire, they all prayed fervently from 9 a.m. through 12:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, hundreds of students of state Syiah Kuala University staged on Thursday a peaceful rally at the Simpang Lima roundabout at the heart of Banda Aceh, calling on the central government and GAM to respect the results of the Geneva peace talks and implement the points agreed upon.
The two sides, they said, should be able to cease all hostilities as a precondition to creating peace and paving the way for confidence-building measures, which would lead to a improved situation in the province and a strengthening of the economy.
At the last talks in May, the government and GAM agreed to hold a "democratic, all-inclusive dialogue" based on autonomy for Aceh as an Indonesian province and to set up measures to implement a cease-fire.
In Jakarta, close to 2,000 students staged on Thursday protests outside the U.S., British and Dutch Embassies, as well as the UN office, condemning the government's ultimatum for GAM to accept the special autonomy status and urging the military to stop its offensive against the secessionist movement.
The government has given GAM until the end of December to accept the special autonomy status, introduced on Jan. 1, 2001, or face the full brunt of military might.
Last Sunday, over 1,000 people, including local military leaders, also gathered in the Baiturrahman Mosque to pray for peace.
Military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said in Jakarta on Thursday that TNI fully backed a peace agreement between the government and GAM, believing that the Aceh question could be resolved without resort to military force.
"There are some good signs that GAM will accept the proposed peace agreement by the first week of November," Endriartono said at a media conference at the TNI headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta.
He said that it was high time for GAM to prove that it was really fighting for the people's welfare.
Endriartono also said that the government would grant a sweeping amnesty to GAM members if the secessionist movement lay down its arms.
"We will grant an amnesty ... even though such an amnesty is not included in the draft of the accord," he said.
Meanwhile, the Henry Dunant Center, which has been sponsoring peace talks between the government and GAM, denied on Thursday that a new round of negotiations would take place in Switzerland this weekend.
"There aren't any talks taking place this weekend," Andy Andrea, a spokesman for the Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialog, was quoted by AFP as saying.
He also indicated that no date had been set for their resumption.
Aceh Governor Puteh said in Banda Aceh on Thursday that the negotiations would get under way on Saturday and last until Tuesday in Switzerland.