Yindee Lertcharoenchok – After the first ever face-to-face talks, representatives of the Free Aceh movement and a government-sanctioned Acehnese delegation yesterday expressed hope that both sides could strike an agreement, as early as next week, to end the violence in one of Indonesia's worst strife-torn provinces.
Although the talks did not produce any concrete results, both the exiled delegates of the Aceh-Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF) led by Dr Zaini Abdullah and the Jakarta-blessed five-member team praised the "informal meeting" as a good start for both sides to continue peace dialogues.
Speaking at a press conference, Abdullah, the ASNLF health minister, said it was "clear cut" that the Acehnese people want "independence" from Indonesia. But the Jakarta-blessed team said "nothing concrete had been achieved in the informal meeting."
Noernikmat, a Medan-based shipping businessman, and his five-member team, which was approved by both the Governor of Aceh and the Indonesian government, was scheduled to leave late last night for Stockholm where they hope to hold further discussions with Hasan di Tiro, the ASNLF leader who has been living in exile in Sweden since 1979.
The team, he said, will report the outcome of the talks in Bangkok and in Sweden to the Indonesian authorities upon their return to Jakarta. Along with other group members, Noernikmat said he hoped both sides could reach an agreement that would stop the ongoing atrocities and violence.
Noernikmat said his delegation, which includes a medical professor and a political economist, has planned to stay four days in Sweden and hoped that Zaini and his team could help arrange a meeting with their leader Di Tiro.
The two opposing delegates were in Bangkok attending a conference on Aceh with the theme: "Fifty-Four Years Within Indonesia."
At the conference, both Acehnese and international participants agreed that Indonesian military brutality against the Acehnese people has worsened following the deployment of more Indonesian troops in the rebellious province early this year.
Carmel Budiardjo, a well-known campaigner against human rights abuses in East Timor and Aceh, told the conference that what happened in Aceh was not a religious war as Jakarta has tried to portray but "repression perpetuated by the New Order regime of Suharto."
"The Suharto regime did not pick its victims on the basis of religion," said Budiardjo, herself imprisoned for three years without trial by the government of former president Suharto.
She said successive Indonesian governments have been "strictly for unitary states serving the central administration in Jakarta. Anything different from this ideology will be bound to be attacked."
She said she hoped the emerging elected government from the June 7 general elections "will have a change in attitude towards dissent" in Aceh and West Papua or Irian Jaya.
The conference yesterday agreed to form a joint committee to support Aceh, in particular to look into humanitarian efforts for the people in Aceh and to carry out political advocacy for the Acehnese cause.
In separate interviews yesterday, several Acehnese leaders including ASNLF Information officer Bokhtiar Abdullah has urged the international community, particularly the Asean members to help mediate in the peaceful settlement of the problem in Aceh.
Shalahuddin Alfata of the Fight and Justice Forum for Aceh has urged Malaysia to mediate in talks and find a peaceful solution for the free Aceh movement and Indonesia in the same manner Kuala Lumpur had successfully helped in the peaceful settlement of the dispute between the Muslim Moro group and the Philippine government.