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TNI chief hopeful of peace talks, but problems remain

Agence France Presse - June 5, 2005

Singapore – Indonesian military chief General Endriartono Sutarto said Saturday he was hopeful ongoing peace talks could lead to a permanent solution to a separatist rebellion in Aceh province.

But he said problems remained because several factions of the separatist Free Aceh Movement, which goes by the acronym GAM, have said they do not recognise the leadership of the group engaged in the negotiations.

"The GAM in Aceh is not only one faction, there are a lot of factions of the GAM in Aceh," Sutarto said at an international security conference here.

"Some of them are saying that they are not under the command of their people who live now in Stockholm," he said, referring to the GAM leaders living in exile in Sweden.

He said these factions said that "we will not follow them because we are not under their control, so that's one of the problems that we have." Sutarto said, however, he was "hopeful that the dialogue will give a good result for a permanent solution in Aceh."

The comments of Sutarto, the commander-in-chief for the Indonesian National Defense Forces, came just days after Indonesian government and GAM negotiators ended the latest round of talks in Helsinki, Finland.

"I have not gotten any information yet about the talks but I hope the talks will give a good result for a permanent solution in Aceh," he said.

Aceh, a western Indonesian province, has been a battleground for government and armed rebels since 1976 when GAM launched its campaign for independence, angered by what it said was Jakarta's exploitation of the province's oil and gas resources.

Peace talks to end almost the three-decade conflict were launched in Helsinki earlier this year after both sides agreed to return to the table in the wake of the December 26 tsunami disaster in which Aceh was the hardest hit.

The weekend's International Institute of Strategic Studies' Asia Security Conference has gathered the defense ministers, senior military officials, diplomats and scholars from more than 22 countries in the Asia-Pacific region and some Western allies.