'Set time frame for dialog with Aceh separatists'

'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.