| |
Peace accord: Acehnese grasp at
hope
By Prangtip Daorueng
JAKARTA - Tuesday's peace accord signed between
the Indonesian government and Acehnese rebels is not the
first attempt at peace, but many Acehnese who are
gathering and praying together, many in tears, after
hearing news of the pact hope it will be the last.
For many, the December 9 agreement signed in
Geneva, consisting of nine articles, is the beginning of
the end for the 26 year old separatist conflict between
Jakarta and the restive Indonesian province that has
claimed over 10,000 Acehnese lives.
It is the
first peace accord to involve an international
monitoring presence, a factor that many hope raises the
chances of its success.
Villagers in Aceh, the
resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra
island, welcomed with joy news of the accord that allows
autonomy and elections in 2004 for a government, which
would be allowed to keep up to 70 percent of the
province's oil and gas revenues.
"They strongly
hope for the quick implementation of the agreement from
both sides so that there will be no more troops or
gunfights in the village from now on," Juanda, a member
of Acehnese Civil Society Task Force in the capital,
Banda Aceh, who uses one name. "What they want is to get
back to their normal life without fear for violence as
before."
But the optimism in the wake of the
agreement, brokered by the Switzerland-based Henry
Dunant Center, is also tempered with pragmatism.
"Acehnese are very happy with the agreement, but
we are also aware that there is a difficult job ahead,"
said Hasballah Saad, an Acehnese member of the
Indonesian Human Rights Commission and a former
human-rights minister.
On Tuesday, activists in
Aceh met to analyze the nine points in the agreement,
which began with a ceasefire.
"The atmosphere
that we see here is a transformation period from armed
conflict to a non-violence atmosphere," said Juanda.
"The first thing civil society here want to see is an
atmosphere in which people are free to express their
opinions without fear."
For many in Banda Aceh,
who have lived through a tense atmosphere as rebels and
soldiers fought each other, a period marked by
kidnapping, torture and murder, the first dividend of
the peace accord should be security in their daily
lives.
Just a few days before the peace
agreement was signed, a student leader in Banda Aceh was
kidnapped and killed by a group of unknown men. Such an
atmosphere had weakened people's participation in
conflict solving process.
The Free Aceh Movement
separatist rebels, formally known by their Indonesian
acronym GAM, have been fighting for an independent state
since 1976, chafing under Jakarta's siphoning off of
huge revenues from its oil and gas resources and rights
violations by the military in its efforts to quell the
secessionist movement.
The content of the
agreement shows that both Jakarta and GAM have softened
their earlier stances, which had driven the peace
process to a near deadlock a few months ago.
One
of the nine points is an agreement on both sides to
accept the Jakarta-proposed Special Autonomy Law as a
starting point. GAM has not shown their clear acceptance
of the law as it goes against its stand for Aceh's
independence from Indonesia. The agreement, however,
provides a chance for the review of the law to
accommodate people's aspirations after the elections set
for 2004 in Aceh.
For its part, Jakarta, which
had insisted that the Aceh conflict was a domestic one
and rejected any foreign interference in it, for the
first time allowed a foreign monitoring team in the
province.
The Geneva agreement provides for the
activation of a Joint Monitoring Force Command
comprising 150 soldiers from the Indonesian army, local
Aceh forces, the Philippines and Thailand, starting this
Sunday. The team, to be headed by a senior Thai military
official, will be supervised by the Henry Dunant Center.
The first 12 international peace monitors from the
center arrived in Aceh on Wednesday.
To prevent
armed clashes, troops from both sides, especially the
much-feared Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob),
are to relocate to defensive positions during the
two-month grace period. No additional troops will be
allowed during this period.
Both sides agreed to
demilitarize certain areas and to determine a peace zone
in two months. GAM also agreed to place its weapons in
cantonment sites under international supervision. GAM,
Jakarta and the Henry Dunant Center will form a joint
council to resolve disputes arising from the
implementation of the agreement. The center will also
facilitate an all-inclusive dialogue on the future of
Aceh.
Serious international pressure on
Indonesia to end the Aceh conflict helped lead to this
week's agreement, and will provide incentives for
staying on the peace track.
Prior to the Geneva
meeting, the first-ever multi-government conference on
Aceh was held in Tokyo on December 3. There,
representatives from 23 countries plus international
financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian
Development Bank gave pledges of financial support for
the reconstruction of Aceh.
Meantime, Hasballah
said many details in the agreement must be ironed out.
"Decisions to allocate reconciliation funds from abroad
should not be done by the government only. Instead it
should be done from Aceh through a committee established
there," he said. "This is to guarantee transparency."
The Geneva agreement also does not make clear
how past human-rights abuses will be handled. It only
states that it could lead to compensation and
investigation of abuses since 1976, the start of the
conflict. Both Hasballah and Juanda said this is among
the most important issues that need to be resolved in
the near future.
History is not encouraging on
this point. The Jakarta government has attempted to
suppress reports of human-rights abuses by its military
and pro-Jakarta militias. The September arrests of two
Western women, including an Asia Times Online
contributor, have been linked by some to the official
effort to cover up the truth.
Lesley McCulloch,
a Scottish-born academic who had been researching the
Acehnese conflict, and Joy Lee Sadler, an American nurse
who was working with refugees in Aceh, were put on trial
last week in Banda Aceh. The trial has been adjourned to
December 19. They were charged with the relatively minor
offense of violating their tourist visa, but instead of
being deported - normally the most severe punishment -
they were held for trial, and have been told they face
up to five years in jail.
Juanda cited the need
for a human-rights tribunal for Aceh, while Hasballah
proposed a study on different approaches in countries
such as South Africa or South Korea to reach closure
after conflict.
"Bringing the suspects to court
is not the only way to deal with the problem," Hasballah
said.
(Inter Press Service)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
