RI to reduce Henry Dunant Center's role

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Alwi Shihab confirmed on Wednesday the plan to reduce the role of the Swiss- based Henry Dunant Center in mediating talks with the Acehnese as the government has decided to involve all dissenting Aceh factions in future talks.

He said the results of the negotiations with separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), mediated by the Center, had shifted away from what the government had expected.

"We cannot say that the negotiation was not effective, but it has proceeded in a way that we did not expect. Initially, we hoped after the extension of the Humanitarian Pause, we could talk about matters of substance, but after Jan. 15, we got nothing," Alwi told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

He said that after the completion of the one-month "moratorium on violence" on Feb. 15, Indonesia would open dialogs with all factions in the restive province, not only GAM, and, therefore, it would minimize the role of the Henry Dunant Center in the future.

"With the new framework, we are going to have direct dialogs not just with GAM but with all factions among the Acehnese ... So, the Henry Dunant Center's role will be reduced," Alwi said.

Earlier this week, Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced that starting Feb. 15, the Indonesian government would determine the solution to the Aceh problem and a mediator would not be needed anymore in the dialog and the negotiation.

Separately, former state minister for human rights affairs Hasballah M. Saad said there should be a national commission that would have the authority to take necessary measures in settling the conflict in Aceh.

"The commission should formulate comprehensive measures to solve the Aceh problems during the one-month truce," he told journalists after a discussion at the Habibie Center here on Wednesday.

Hasballah, an Acehnese, said the commission should comprise people who understand the real sources of the conflict.

"They don't have to be Acehnese... I think they should be people like former finance minister Mar'ie Muhammad and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Baharuddin Lopa," he said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents of Blang Kedah in Tiro subdistrict, Pidie regency fled their homes and hid in the jungle on Wednesday following security raids on a rebel base conducted by joint police-military forces.

Several communication radios were seized and no less than 350 photos and data of the rebels were found in the raid that began on Monday, an official said on Wednesday.

The chief of the joint police-military team conducting the raid, Comr. Restu M. Budianto, confirmed on Wednesday the raids took place following reports of a GAM rebel base in the area.

"There was gunfire during the encounter with the rebels but they fled," the officer said.

Residents of the village, however, said there was no gunfire and only women and children were in the village after the men fled.

Separately, a policeman, identified as Anwar Yusuf, was injured when a group of gunmen sprayed bullets at a police subprecinct post in Pidie on Wednesday morning.

Earlier on Tuesday afternoon, an alleged rebel named Rusli Hasan, 50, a Sagoe (district) commander in Tangse, was shot to death on his way from Tangse to Sigli.

Pidie Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Heru Budi Ersanto said the rebel tried to escape police custody.

"When he was in custody in Tangse, several threats took place and we decided to move him to Sigli. But on the way he tried to flee," he said.

GAM spokesman Amni Marzuki, however, said that none of GAM commanders were shot or killed.

Fresh violence erupted in the area between Bireun and Takengon in Central Aceh on Wednesday afternoon, but no immediate details were available.

Aguswandi BR, coordinator for the Aceh representative office of the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), said the government had applied a double standard in dealing with the Aceh problem.

"The government says it wants to negotiate with GAM, but at the same time security operations continue to take place," he said.

He said Kontras recorded 41 cases of violence in Aceh province in the period of Jan. 15 through Jan. 22, with 14 people killed, with seven others tortured, 19 arrested and one still missing.

The violence, he said, resulted from armed conflicts between Indonesian security forces and GAM members. (50/bby/dja/edt)