Vaudine England, Jakarta – The renewal of a ceasefire between secessionist rebels and the Government in Aceh was greeted by more violence, but human rights activists say the peace pact reached in Geneva last week is still better than nothing.
"That the leaders of both sides are still sitting together, talking together, that means something," said Abdul Humam Hamid, of the Care Human Rights Forum in the Acehnese capital, Banda Aceh.
In the latest violence, the body of a non-governmental organisation employee was found in East Aceh yesterday. The worker, 47-year old Oz Rusli Radja, who was reported to have been abducted on Saturday, was later found with bullet wounds to his head. His body bore the marks of torture. His rickshaw driver had also been tortured before he, too, was killed.
Abdurrachman Yacob, head of the Coalition for Human Rights, said it was likely that Radja, who also worked as a journalist, had been the victim of Indonesian security forces.
"It is often that human rights workers and journalists are abducted and killed by the security forces. And these so-called 'unidentified groups' I think are intelligence personnel," he said. International human right's groups have accused the security forces of using death squads to kill political opponents.
Shootouts between Acehnese rebels and Indonesian troops and local police greeted the latest peace pact, leaving at least one rebel and one marine dead over the weekend.
In addition, the Jakarta Government plans to send thousands more troops to join the 30,000 police and soldiers already in Aceh. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) says fresh troop arrivals will provoke violent retaliation not only in Aceh, but in Jakarta too.
The killings came after an open-ended renewal of a ceasefire was signed on Friday in Geneva. Fresh commitments were made to pursue more broad-based talks around the needs of Aceh for greater freedom and of Jakarta to hold the country together.
"The next step is an all-inclusive political dialogue in Aceh itself, in which GAM would be participating," said senior diplomat Hassan Wirajuda, who led the Jakarta delegation in the Swiss talks.
Both President Abdurrahman Wahid and his Foreign Minister, Alwi Shihab, frequently claim that the Aceh problem will be solved "soon" and that peace is at hand. Field commanders on both sides in Aceh also pledged to withstand provocation and to stop seeking out the other side, apparently to no avail.
"We don't know the mechanisms in the way Wahid governs," admitted Mr Hamid. "But we do know that he is personally committed to not using the [armed forces-backed] security approach against the Acehnese. I still believe he wants a peaceful solution. The worse thing for the Acehnese would be if Wahid left office, or was not trying."