HELSINKI: Organisers yesterday expressed cautious optimism as a third round of peace talks between Indonesian officials and leading Aceh separatists began here, aiming to end a protracted independence war that has killed more than 12,000 people in the western region.
“There is cautious optimism.... They have started the work and there is no clear indication of any tensions. This is a sign of commitment from both sides,” said Maria-Elena Cowell, a spokeswoman for Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), which is organising the talks.
The fresh peace negotiations, which were driven forth by the need for international aid to reach the tsunami-struck Aceh province, are scheduled to last six days and, like the first two rounds in January and February, are being mediated by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari.
The discussions are taking place at the Koeningstedt estate outside Helsinki.
“The parties have had separate meetings with Ahtisaari and they are now proceeding with a joint session,” Cowell told AFP, adding that “the talks today should go on until around 6pm (1500 GMT), after which time the parties will eat dinner together”.
When the two delegations met for the first round of talks in January it was the first time they stood face-to-face since May 2003, when the government declared martial law, launching a major military offensive and barring foreign press and aid workers from the province.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been fighting for nearly 29 years for a separate homeland in the western Indonesian province, accusing Jakarta of plundering the region’s mineral wealth and leaving its people trapped in poverty.
GAM has also been accused of abuses.
The renewed efforts to reach a peaceful solution were prompted by a need for international aid to reach Aceh, which bore the brunt of the catastrophic earthquake and tsunamis last December. More than 126,000 people were killed in that region alone.
It is hoped that the six days of discussions, scheduled to wrap up on Sunday afternoon, will give the parties time to flesh out the details and a timetable for proposals concerning topics like special autonomy, security arrangements, economic relations, amnesty and outside monitoring.
One issue not on the table is GAM’s continued demand for full independence, something Jakarta has rejected as unacceptable.
“Independence is still not on the table, since there would be no negotiations if it was, but this does not mean that we will stop our main struggle, which is for independence,” GAM’s Stockholm-based spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said last week.
Although the second round of talks ended on a positive note with both sides reporting progress towards an agreement on a special autonomy for the region, continued fighting on the ground appears to have clouded the horizon.
The composition of the official delegations has remained unchanged since the last round of talks.
The government of Indonesia is represented by Minister of Justice and Human Rights Hamid Awaluddin, Minister of Communication and Information Sofyan Djalil, Deputy Minister for Social Welfare Farid Husain, Director for Human Rights and Security of the Foreign Ministry Gusti Agung Wesaka Pudja and Deputy Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs in the Department of National Security Usman Basyah.
The negotiators of the Free Aceh Movement are Malik Mahmud, Zaini Abdullah, Bakhtiar Abdullah, Nur Djuli and Nurdin Abdul Rahman. – AFP |
