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The polls will be the first in Aceh since the 2005 peace deal which brought an end to three decades of bloody conflict. (IOL photo) |
BANDA ACEH — Tensions are running high in Indonesia's newly-autonomous Aceh province ahead of Thursday's general polls, with a string of attacks against politicians raising security fears and deepening suspicions.
"Aceh is fragile now," Adnan Beuranshah, the spokesman of the Aceh Party (Partai Aceh) told IslamOnline.net.
A local politician was shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Saturday, April 4, less than a week before the general elections.
It was the latest in a string of shootings and grenade attacks that killed at least 16 people over the past three months.
At least three ex-leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which signed a landmark peace agreement with the government in 2005, were killed in the attacks.
Adnan, himself an ex-GAM leader, believes some are trying to spoil the election atmosphere.
"There are certain elements misusing this situation for their own interests."
The International Crisis Croup (ICG) has warned that the killing of GAM politicians has set the province on edge.
Expressing deep concerns about security, Aceh Governor Irwandi Yusuf -- a former GAM leader -- has called the European Union to monitor the region's polls.
The April 9 vote will see about 171 million voters, three million of them in Aceh alone, electing members of both chambers of the parliament and members of local councils, in the third general elections since the fall of the Suharto regime.
Six local parties will contest the polls in Aceh, the first since the 2005 Helsinki Memo of Understanding (MoU) which brought to an end three decades of bloody conflict in the region that had seen the death of some 15,000 people.
Fears
Some are also playing the fear card, warning that if certain parties are elected they would push for independence from Indonesia.
"I think it’s very logical worries," Professor Muladi, head of the National Resilience Institute, a Defense Ministry affiliate, told IOL.
"We must prevent any change to make it possible."
All six parties contesting the polls in Aceh were established after the signing of the Helsinki deal and many of them include ex-leaders and former supporters of GAM.
A recent survey showed Aceh Party and the Voice of Independent Aceh People Party (SIRA), both lead by ex-GAM leaders, would dominate the vote.
Some army officers, who believe GAM is still seeking independence, participated in damaging attributes and flags of the contesting parties.
"We have proven not to involve in any local political affairs by punishing our military men," Major Dudi Dzulfadli, spokesman of Aceh Military Command, told IOL.
Ex-separatists deny any hidden agenda to using election results to push for independence.
"Those who accuse us of seeking independence are baseless," Taufik Abda, spokesman of SIRA Party, told IOL.
"I think people prefer to choose peace than conflict."
Others affirm that the government needs to address the root causes of such rumors.
Bachtiar Abdullah, a Sweden-based GAM spokesman, laments that four years later, many provisions of the 2005 peace deal have not been implemented.
"If the both parties implement the MoU appropriately, then people will be happy."
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