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Analyst Urges Government To Continue Dialogue With Aceh Separatists
by Kazi Mahmood for IslamOnline
JAKARTA (IslamOnline) - In a press conference Thursday, Syarwan Ahmad of the All-Aceh Intellectual Movement (GISA) said the Indonesian government should continue dialogue with the separatist GAM.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is the most influential group in the prolonged conflict in Aceh and any solution to the conflict would not be permanent without the support of the GAM, he commented.
"The Indonesian government should continue its dialogue with GAM in search of a comprehensive solution to the Aceh conflict," Syarwan Ahmad told reporters.
Syarwan was commenting on statements made by Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on the format of a proposed expanded political dialogue on the Aceh conflict.
Yudhoyono pointed out that the government should invite other groups in Aceh to the expanded dialogue. In response, the Indonesian government stated that peace talks in Aceh would go on with or without the GAM.
Mentioning other groups beside the GAM, Ahmad stated that the Taliban (an Aceh based group), the Aceh Referendum Information Agency (SIRA), religious leaders, non-governmental organizations, and public figures, should also join in such a dialogue.
He said that the dialog should also be made transparent, similar to one held by former president BJ Habibie at Banda Aceh’s Grand Mosque in mid-1999.
However, prospects for such a dialogue between the GAM and the Indonesian government are slim.
After President Abdurrahman Wahid completed his brief visit to Banda Aceh on December 19th, the GAM’s operation commander for Greater Aceh, Ayah Muni, said the group would only attend dialogues on the condition that military troops and policemen are withdrawn from Aceh. Muni was talking from his hideout in Banda Aceh.
Under intense pressure to allow the military to clamp down on the separatist movement, Wahid administration’s finds conditions imposed by the GAM unacceptable.
Yudhoyono stressed that the government "does not intend to, and will not withdraw military troops and policemen from Aceh."
Yet the government said that it would seek an all-inclusive dialogue with the Acehnese to defuse separatist sentiment in the troubled province.
"The government is now developing a more comprehensive dialogue and political communication between Jakarta and the Acehnese," Yudhoyono said.
He said the talks, to be held in Aceh, would include members of the GAM, SIRA, local ulemas, non-governmental organizations and Acehnese civic leaders.
The government and GAM signed a Humanitarian Pause in May to cease the violence in Aceh. The agreement was extended for another three months in September.
The accord, however, has failed to bring about a halt to the violence.
Top security officials have suggested that if by January 15, Wahid’s reconciliatory approach failed to bring concrete results, the government should resort to military operations in the province.
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