Acheh: Bill Breaches Deal, Says Free Acheh Movement
Chief negotiator with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Bakhtiar Abdullah said provisions in the bill for splitting the province were a clear breach of the peace agreement.
"Breaking up Aceh undermines the memorandum of understanding
(signed between the separatists and the Indonesian Government in Helsinki),"
he said. "It was clear in the MoU that the border of Aceh is based on the
1965 agreement."
Mr Abdullah said the bill had been created to benefit certain minorities within
Aceh.
"This is not for Aceh people, but for the sake of certain
political elites," he said. "This is the effort from certain groups
to break up Aceh and who want the Aceh process to fail. Their reason is because
they have been neglected by the local government."
The peace deal, accelerated by the 2004 tsunami that killed more than 170,000
Acehnese, has exceeded expectations. The rebels have disarmed and most of the
supernumerary police and military have withdrawn from Aceh, ending three decades
of conflict that killed 15,000 people.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has been nominated
for a Nobel Peace Prize for his part in the deal. Yet wrangling over the bill
could stall the progress towards establishing a peaceful and largely autonomous
Aceh within Indonesia.
Under the peace agreement, the bill should be enacted by March 31, but it has
yet to even be debated in the national parliament, with discussions continuing
yesterday on whether the debate should be conducted by a special committee,
or by the Home Affairs Commission.
Nationalist parliamentarians, particularly members of the Democratic Party of Struggle led by former president Megawati Sukarnoputri, have voiced concerns the bill has gone too far to placate GAM, and they fear other rebellious provinces could demand similar concessions.
However, the Yudhoyono administration has majority support
in the parliament, which should ensure the passage of the bill.
GAM leaders concede that because they have already disarmed it is unlikely they
will return to fully fledged war, and negotiation is their last remaining weapon.
"Actually, what's been the aspiration of the Acehnese people is how to get the draft to pass," Mr Abdullah said. "That is the aspiration, how to find a way out for the problems in that draft."
A spokesman for the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) -- the international organisation set up to oversee the peace process -- said the developments regarding the bill would be carefully observed. If there were deviations from the peace agreement, the interested parties would be notified, he said.
Budi Arianto, from Aceh's Cultural Community Network, said Acehnese people were concerned about the contents of the new bill.
The Indonesian Government should ensure the Acehnese have the control over their rich natural resources promised to them under the peace agreement, he said, and independent candidates should be permitted to stand in elections prior to GAM forming its own political party. "In these conditions of post-disaster and conflict, the Acehnese had better be given some room to control the money," Mr Arianto said.
