U.S. mediator hopes to revive Aceh peace talks

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.