'Set time frame for dialog with Aceh separatists'

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A noted religious leader urged the government on Friday to press ahead with peace talks with Aceh separatists, but asked it to set a specific time frame.

Ahmad Syafii Ma'arif, a member of an independent team made up of five prominent public figures, who is also the chairman of the country's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadyah, also said peace talks with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) must be held within the framework of the unitary state of Indonesia.

"I agree with Zinni's point of view, but I insist that peace talks between the two parties must be based on clear rules of the game, including the agenda and time frame," Syafii said.

Retired United States general Anthony Zinni, an advisor to the Switzerland-based non-governmental organization the Henry Dunant Centre (HDC), said after a three-day visit to Aceh on Thursday that dialog might be difficult but "both parties should not be discouraged."

Syafii said the Acehnese were already tired of the conflict, while GAM had been making unclear demands. "So, this is the time for us to launch a dialog with them (the Acehnese and GAM)," he asserted.

Commenting on the calls for dialog, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said: "I leave the dialog to the government, but as a TNI member, I know better than these people on how to handle the security situation in Aceh."

"For me, no more dialog ... the rebellion has to be crushed," Ryamizard told reporters at Army headquarters.

Syafi'i, along with noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid, former foreign minister Ali Alatas, former minister of home affairs Surjadi Soedirdja, and former member of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI) Ali Yafie, set up an independent team to look for a suitable, peaceful solution to the Aceh question.

Syafii said they had advised the government against imposing a state of emergency there.

The government had originally planned to introduce a new, tougher policy on Aceh on Aug. 5, including the sending of 4,000 reinforcement troops to the province to back up the 21,000 already deployed there, but decided to delay it until Aug. 19.

Syafi'i said his team had submitted its recommendations to both Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto.

"They accepted the proposal and promised not to impose a state of emergency in Aceh," Syafi'i told The Jakarta Post by telephone on Friday.

"The government should not repeat its past mistake when it declared the province to be a military operation area," he said.

In a bid to quell the secessionist movement, former president Soeharto declared Aceh a military operations area (DOM) in 1989, a status that was only lifted in 1999 by Soeharto's successor B.J. Habibie. Thousands of innocent Acehnese were believed to have been killed or tortured during that period.