U.S. mediator hopes to revive Aceh peace talks
Berni K. Moestafa and Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Banda Aceh
Retired U.S. general Anthony Zinni, assigned by the Henry Dunant Center (HDC) to help mediate peace in Aceh, met with provincial security officials on Tuesday in efforts to end a three-month impasse in peace talks with the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Gen. (ret.) Anthony Zinni met on Tuesday with Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen. Yusuf Manggabarani and later with Aceh Iskandar Muda Military Commander Maj. Gen. M. Djali Yusuf, HDC spokesperson Fahmi Yunus said.
Antara reported Yusuf Manggabarani as saying that Zinni's mission here was part of efforts to revive a deal which GAM and the government struck in Geneva last May.
Both sides agreed on a cessation of hostilities and an all- inclusive dialogue with the Acehnese.
The dialogue should have been an alternative to the ongoing talks which HDC sponsors. However GAM and Jakarta insisted that compliance with the agreement in May was mandatory for talks to resume.
Zinni arrived in Aceh on Monday for a three-day visit to Aceh as HDC's special advisor to seek input from both sides and help revive peace talks.
"That is the direction (of this visit)," said local activist Abdul Gani Nurdin when asked whether Zinni had hoped his visit could get the two sides talking.
Abdul Gani and a joint team of government officials and locals monitoring Aceh's security situation met Zinni late Monday. Earlier, Zinni met with GAM negotiators.
Accompanying the retired general were HDC executive Andrew Marshall and program manager for Aceh David Gorman. Zinni will leave the province on Wednesday.
Relentless violence in Aceh has butchered prospects of peace. An estimated 400 people, mainly civilians, have been killed this year alone.
Zinni arrived in Jakarta on Sunday, where he met Coordinating Minister for Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono before leaving for Banda Aceh in the western most part of Indonesia.
Susilo said the government was eager to resume talks with GAM but wanted the separatists to end the hostilities. The two have been negotiating for the past three years and Jakarta is growing impatient with the lack of results.
On Zinni's second day in Aceh, three people were shot dead, local military reports said. Two alleged GAM members were killed by soldiers and a civil servant was found dead with a gunshot- wound to his head, local military spokesman Maj. Zaenal Muttaqien said.
A surge in violence against civilians and soldiers over the last few months has drawn an angry response from Jakarta. President Megawati Soekarnoputri called for more resolute action while local military chiefs demanded more troops be sent to the province.
Zinni's visit comes as the government drafts a new policy to handle the Aceh conflict following the expiry of a Presidential Decree that gives the military the legal grounds to crush the separatist movement.
The plan is due to be announced on Aug. 19, instead of last Monday as initially scheduled.
The visit by Zinni, a U.S. envoy in the high-profile Middle East peace negotiation process, may signal Washington's growing interest in ending the more than 25-year-old conflict in Aceh.
Last year, a unit of the American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil Corp. suspended its gas operation in Northern Aceh for eight months following attacks by armed groups the Indonesian Military (TNI) said belonged to GAM.
The conflict has resulted in lawlessness throughout the province, a condition which CNN claimed led the alleged terrorist group al-Qaeda to consider moving its base from Afghanistan to Aceh in 2000.
Last month, Susilo branded GAM's activities as nothing short of terrorism, but denied trying to link the group with the U.S. war on terror.