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Indonesian Government Divided Over Aceh
by Kazi Mahmood
JAKARTA (IslamOnline) - A day after Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid’s visit to the restive province of Aceh, the country’s cabinet showed fissures and division over government policy imposed on the territory.
Cabinet Ministers are said to be in a scuffle over Aceh and Irian Jaya as well as the Riau Islands. In Irian Jaya, Ministers openly defied Wahid’s orders to release jailed separatist leaders.
The issue of peace negotiations with the secessionist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the coming deadline for the Humanitarian Pause in force in Aceh are sources of a tug of war between the president and some cabinet ministers, including Defense Minister Mohamed Mahfud M.D.
Mahfud said on Wednesday that the Indonesian government would not negotiate with the separatist GAM after January 15, 2001, when the Humanitarian Pause expires.
"After January 15, there will be no negotiations with GAM," Mahfud told reporters at the Merdeka State Palace.
Antara reported that Mahfud said the government frequently received Acehnese leaders to discuss solutions to the prolonged conflicts in Aceh but that local leaders asked the ministers not to publicize their identities.
Mahfud was referring to non-GAM and secessionist leaders. He warned GAM and their supporters of tough action after January 15th and is said to be urging Wahid not to extend the Pause. During his trip to Aceh, Wahid rejected a renewal of the truce but said there will be no further armed intervention.
Contrary to the wish of military and political hardliners in Jakarta, he said he preferred a negotiated solution to the conflict.
Wahid is set to participate in Geneva discussions with GAM representatives as revealed by exiled leader of the GAM, Hasan di Tiro.
Tiro told the Agence France Press (AFP) that he is going to be in Geneva next week where many things are happening. However, he said he would not meet with Indonesian negotiators.
Tiro has continually been highly critical of Wahid and his administration, calling them the invaders of the Muslim province. He likened the Indonesian army as an invasion force and urged his people to fight off the "aggression".
Tiro dismissed Wahid’s visit to Aceh, saying there was “not at all” a chance it would help stabilize the situation there.
“The problem is Indonesia,” he said. “Indonesia is not a country at all, it is the empire of the Dutch.”
Sooner or later, Indonesia was bound to break up “because the people...want to go their separate ways,” he said. “We want to go our way.”
He also scoffed at a plan for the leader's visit to coincide with an official declaration of Sharia’ (Islamic) law in Aceh
Wahid, in the meantime, said on Wednesday that he may order the release of jailed Acehnese pro-independence activist Mohammad Nazar who has been detained for a month now.
Nazar, leader of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) that organized a series of pro-independence rallies, was arrested on November 22nd and charged with breaching public order at a similar separatist gathering in August in his bloodied homeland.
Five other SIRA activists have also been questioned by police in Banda Aceh but were not detained.
Despite demands from pro-independence supporters and human rights activists to free him, police have said that Nazar will not be released until an inquiry into his alleged misdeeds is brought to court.
A human rights organization, the Aceh branch of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has deplored Wahid’s decision not to hold a dialog with Acehnese people during his brief visit to the province on Tuesday.
"We really regret it. Why did President Wahid not take some of his time to meet Aceh community figures and students for a dialog," said Iqbal Farabi, chairman of the commission’s Aceh branch.
Iqbal also criticized the speech made by Wahid, which did not really touch on human rights abuses in Aceh. Iqbal said Wahid`s visit was nothing more than a ceremonial exercise.
“Now I think the [Wahid] visit did not contribute anything to the efforts to solve the Aceh problem.”
Indonesian Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputeri will visit Aceh December 22-24, her office said Wednesday.
During her brief visit, Sukarnoputeri will inaugurate a free trade zone and the Sabang free port in Weh Island, northwest of Aceh, where a conflict has been raging for the past 25 years in which thousands have died.
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