RI negotiators, GAM brace for talks
The Jakarta Post, Helsinki/Jakarta
Negotiating teams from the Indonesian government and the main rebel movement in Aceh province, where a long-running conflict was overshadowed by last month's devastating tsunami disaster, arrived in Finland on Thursday for peace talks, officials said.
The Indonesian delegation included three ministers, according to Marie-Elena Cowell, a spokeswoman for the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a private foundation organizing the talks and headed by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.
The exiled leadership of the rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) arrived in Helsinki from Stockholm just before noon, Cowell said.
It will be the first meeting between the government and rebels since a truce broke down 20 months ago.
While the Finnish government has no direct role in the negotiations, which are expected to last through the weekend, it is providing logistical support, a senior civil servant said.
"The government gives support to their efforts, and hopes the efforts lead to early results," Hannu Himanen, under-secretary of state at the Finnish foreign ministry, told Agence France-Presse.
GAM has fought for Aceh's separation from Indonesia since 1976.
It was not known whether talks would begin Thursday as planned, with GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said that "there might be some briefings later today" but saying there was no "clear program at the moment".
The Indonesian government team was led by Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo A.S., a former military chief in Aceh, Maj. Gen. Syarifuddin Tippe, and State Minister of Communications and Information Sofyan Djalil.
GAM's negotiating team is headed by self-styled Aceh prime minister Malik Mahmud and his "foreign minister" Zaini Abdullah.
In Jakarta, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono offered concessions to the GAM rebels if they agreed to a cease-fire and drop demands for Aceh's independence in the upcoming peace talks.
"If we can agree to terminate the conflict based on granting of special autonomy status, then I will give some concessions to them," Susilo said, adding that these would include an amnesty for the rebels and measures to reintegrate rebel fighters.
"I've heard that the response was positive," he said.
Meanwhile, Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda denied the suggestion that his ministry was left out in the cold in the talks with GAM.
"The conflict with GAM can be considered as a domestic matter and the group is not a foreign entity. Therefore, it is not a problem of diplomacy that will involve the Foreign Affairs Ministry," Hassan told members of the House of Representatives Commission I on defense and foreign affairs, who staunchly opposed the planned talks.