Anton Aliabbas, Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) says that the government’s decision to reduce the status of martial law in Aceh to a state of civil emergency is not enough. If the TNI (armed forces) remains the people will still be repressed and continue to suffer.

“Mass killings and arbitrary actions against the Acehnese people will not stop if the TNI’s presence in Aceh is maintained”, said GAM military spokesperson Sofyan Dawood is an SMS message to the press on Thursday May 13. Dawood’s whereabouts are still unknown.

According to Dawood, who is also the GAM commander for the Passe district, the best way to end the conflict on the soil of Serambi Mekah1 is an open dialogue. “The best solution is to hold a dialogue as “gentleman” at the negotiating table. Not by killing each other and taking Acehnese people as hostages, especially [people] pointed out as being linked with GAM or families of GAM [members]”, he added.

Dawood said that in fact a solution like the CoHA model (Cessation of Hostilities Agreement – ed)2 was the correct one. However this failed because the Indonesian government did not have confidence in itself. “The government of [President] Megawati [Sukarnoputri] is too amenable to the TNI”, asserted Dawood. (ani)

Notes:

1. Serambi Mekah – The Gateway of Mecca, Aceh

2. On December 9, Indonesia and GAM signed the historic Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA) in Geneva, facilitated by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre (HDC). The agreement required both sides to begin demilitarisation within two months and a Joint Security Committee (JSC) was tasked with monitoring the peace process. Although there were numerous violations of the agreement, the first two months saw a dramatic decline in violence. Jakarta however complained that GAM was taking advantage of the cease-fire and following a series of attacks by TNI backed militia on the JSC offices peace monitors were forced to withdraw from Aceh. In late April, Jakarta seized on a request by GAM for a postponement of negotiations to call off talks altogether. When talks finally resumed on May 18, Jakarta set out to sabotage the process by arresting five GAM negotiators the day before then introducing a new set of conditions which GAM could not possibly agree to and which were never covered in the original the agreement. Claiming that GAM was refusing to talk about “substantive issues”, government negotiators walked out and on the following day President Megawati Sukarnoputri signed a decree declaring a status of martial law and launching a six-month military offensive.

[Translated by James Balowski.]