Jakarta – Indonesian lawmakers on Thursday slammed a trip to Aceh province by a team of E.U. and Asean monitors ahead of a possible peace deal there, indicating that any agreement could face resistance from nationalists within the political and military elite.
"What is it all about?" said Djoko Susilo, from the parliament's influential defense commission. "The peace talks are supposed to be informal in nature and all of a sudden a monitoring team from the E.U. arrives. This is internationalizing what is Indonesia's problem."
The team, consisting of seven E.U. delegates and three from the Association of Southeast Asian nations, arrived in Aceh earlier this week to prepare for a larger mission if a deal is signed. They will stay in Aceh until Friday.
Acehnese rebels and government negotiators were scheduled to meet July 12 in Finland for a fifth round of talks. The government is optimistic a deal can be reached by August, but analysts have cautioned that several unresolved issues could easily derail the process.
The rebels have been fighting for independence since 1976 in a conflict that has killed at least 15,000 people since 1990. Efforts to end the fighting collapsed in 2003, but the peace process was revived after the Dec. 26 tsunami, which devastated the oil- and gas-rich province.
The current talks represent the best chance for peace in Aceh since the conflict began.
Clashes have continued since the tsunami, however. On Wednesday, rebels ambushed an army patrol in the north of the province, killing a soldier and setting off a gunbattle that left two guerillas dead, the military said.
The rebels weren't available for comment. Both sides regularly lie about the nature of the clashes and casualty figures.
Jakarta has said it won't allow the region to separate from the rest of the country, but will give it a greater say in running its affairs. The rebels have publicly dropped their independence demand, and now want the right to form their own political party in Aceh.
But the process faces opposition from nationalists within the government and parliament and hardline military generals, who say the rebels will never drop their independence campaign and will use a truce to strengthen their ranks.
"I am very shocked (about the monitoring mission)," defense commission vice head Sidarto Danusubroto told the Kompas daily.
The military has publicly pledged to respect any peace deal. The parliament won't be able to stop an agreement, but could make life politically difficult for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono if it decides the deal isn't beneficial to the country.