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TITLE: New Aceh Peace Talks Underway, Indonesian Minister Voices Pessimism |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: AFP |
DATE: January 8, 2001 |
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Fresh peace talks to settle the future of the troubled Aceh province got underway at a secret Swiss location on Monday but a top Indonesian minister earlier warned independence for the province was not an option. After a weekend of further violence on the ground, Indonesian government officials and separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) began their behind-closed-doors discussions amid a media blackout. The two sides which launched a dialogue last year are expected to continue their discussions until Wednesday, sources close to the talks said. But Indonesia's Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud voiced pessimism earlier Monday about the outcome of the new peace talks. "Actually, we (the government) are pessimistic about the dialogue with GAM because they have set a 'fixed price' ... they want freedom from Indonesia," Mahfud said in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta, quoted by the Jakarta Post daily. However, Mahfud said despite the government's pessimism, "we will continue to talk until the problems are settled." He said Jakarta would continue to talk with the GAM despite rising pressure at home against the rebels."I myself, have been pressured by many parties to declare GAM's activities as subversion against the government of Indonesia," the minister said. He said GAM "is only supported by a small number of Acehnese," and its aims did not represent the majority of the population in the strongly-Muslim province. Driven on by East Timor's breakaway from Indonesia in 1999 after a UN-sponsored vote, the GAM separatists have been fighting for an independent Muslim state in Aceh province since the mid-1970s. But Jakarta refuses to consider complete independence for this oil-and gas-rich province, with broad autonomy its best offer. At least seven people, possibly up to 12, were killed or found dead in Aceh on the eve of the talks, police and residents said. Police shot dead an alleged rebel who tried to escape a road check in Pidie district Sunday, police commissioner Restu Mulya said.Unidentified gunmen shot dead a civil servant in Banda Aceh, and another civilian in neighbouring Aceh Besar, a hospital worker and police said. A local GAM commander, Cut Manya, said five soldiers were killed in a grenade attack on a military outpost in Bireun district, North Aceh Sunday. But the district's police chief Adjutant Commissioner Wanto Sumardi, said the attack only injured a soldier, adding a rebel was killed in another gunfight in Syamtalira. Cut Manya denied the dead man was a rebel. In East Aceh a villager was killed and six others were injured when security forces hunted rebels in the village of Aramia, residents said. Meanwhile, two bodies, believed to be victims of violence were also found in East Aceh on Sunday, the Students Front Against Violence said. Last May both sides agreed to a three-month truce, dubbed a "humanitarian pause" that started in June and has been extended until January 15. Jakarta has said it will not seek another extension of the truce. Despite the truce, violence has continued in Aceh, located on the northernmost tip of Sumatra island, claiming more than 960 lives in 2000, according to rights groups. The Geneva-based Henri Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue is helping facilitate the talks, but the centre said last week it was not at liberty to discuss the location or individuals attending. Imam Suja, the chairman of the Aceh branch of the Indonesian Council of Ulemas, the highest authority on Islam there, has commented in the past that the differences between the two sides were "hard to reconcile." END |