Banda Aceh – An independent team should look into alledged violations of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) between the Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), according to Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM).

"We have met with Henry Dunant Center [HDC] and Joint Security Committee [JSC] representatives, and we proposed that the upcoming Joint Council meeting discuss the possibility of forming an independent team to monitor violations of CoHA," Komnas HAM member M.M. Billah said here Thursday.

He said the JSC's monitoring teams had so far found it difficult to investigate violations of CoHA because of their limited mandate.

The JSC's monitoring teams comprise representatives of the Indonesian government, GAM and HDC, a Swiss-based non-governmental organization which brokered the peace pact last December.

Billah said the independent team should be made up of persons who were not involved in the Aceh conflict to see to it that the teams could investigate violations of the peace truce more independently.

"About who will sit in the independent team and how it will be modelled, we still have to discuss it further," he said. He said the team could be made up of special rapporteurs appointed by the United Nations or non-partisan domestic organisations, such as the Komnas HAM.

Asked which of the two groups would most likely sit in the team, he said the merits and demerits of the team depended on the integrity and professionalism of its members. "So, whether or not they will come from the UN, it is not problem," he said.

However, if the independent team consisted of UN special rapporteurs, its recommendations would tend to have more poltical weight, he said.