RI, GAM to resume talks despite differences

RI, GAM to resume talks despite differences

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian government and the exiled leaders of the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) are ready to resume a second-round peace talks in
Finland on Monday despite their acute differences on how to end
the decades' long conflict in the province that has killed
thousands of people.

Delegations from both sides arrived in Helsinki on Sunday,
Maria-Elena Cowell, the spokeswoman for mediator Crisis
Management Initiative (CMI), said.

CMI was founded by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.

The talks, which like the first round of negotiations at the
end of January will take place at the Koeningstedt estate outside
Helsinki, are scheduled to start in earnest on Monday.

The first round of meetings proved largely unfruitful, and
Athisaari felt that a second round would be "decisive" in
determining whether the two sides could manage to reach common
ground for further negotiations.

"We don't know what the end result is going to be. In that
sense, the next meeting will be decisive because after that we'll
know if these negotiations will lead to something or not," he was
quoted by AFP as saying.

Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security
Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto, who is also the supervisor of the
Indonesian delegation, said last week that the upcoming talks
would revolve around the government's offer of a special autonomy
status for the oil and gas rich Aceh.

The CMI also seems keen for GAM leaders to focus the talks on
the concept of limited self-rule for Aceh. It said that within
the framework of special autonomy, "the (two) parties could cover
issues such as socio-economic development and reconstruction,
security arrangements, an amnesty, the lifting of the civil
emergency (status), justice and also human rights issues."

But GAM leaders say they want to focus on the facilitation and
support for the international humanitarian aid effort in Aceh to
assist victims of the recent tsunami, GAM's exiled prime minister
for Aceh Malik Mahmood said.

To achieve that goal, Malik said that the government-in-exile
of Aceh (ASNLF) aimed to reach an agreement with Jakarta on a
sustainable ceasefire as the basis of a lasting peace.

"Our first concern is, and always has been, for the Acehnese
people," Malik said in a statement.

In order to achieve a lasting peace, ASNLF would consider a
range of possible political resolutions to the Aceh conflict, he
said. He, however, stressed the talks would begin with no
agreement on or acceptance of any particular political position.

"If we can have peace, we then expect to be able to work
towards a negotiated political settlement," Malik said.

Despite the sharp differences, the fact that the two parties
are talking is widely viewed as a step in the right direction.

When they met last month, it was the first time the sides
stood face-to-face since May 2003, when the government declared
martial law and launched a major military offensive in the
province after a cease fire broke down.