Banda Aceh – The government is considering holding peace talks inside Indonesia to end the decades-long separatist conflict in Aceh province if dialogue held overseas fails, a top minister said Wednesday.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs, said the government would not abandon dialogue to resolve the problem including talks mediated by the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre.
"If the dialogue abroad cannot settle the problem, we are currently looking at whether a dialogue in the country, such as those held in Malino on Poso and the Malukus, can be possible," Yudhoyono said during a visit to Aceh.
In recent months the government has brokered separate peace talks at Malino to end Muslim-Christian fighting around Poso in central Sulawesi district and in the Maluku islands.
Yudhoyono said the nature of the conflict in Aceh was different from those in Poso and the Malukus but the possibility of such a dialogue must be studied. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is in conflict with the central government, unlike the Muslims and Christians who are fighting each other. It has been vying for an independent Islamic state in Aceh since 1976 and an estimated 10,000 people have been killed in the struggle so far.
Yudhoyono, who arrived Tuesday with national police chief General Da'i Bachtiar, said a security approach alone would not settle the problems in Aceh. "The target of security restoration are GAM elements that provide armed resistance," he said. If GAM halted its armed resistance "I think there will be no reasons for the Indonesian armed forces and the national police to continue intensive security steps".
But Yudhoyono quickly added that so far the situation had not yet changed. "We will activate and intensify security restoration in an accurate way and not make target mistakes while at the same time continue to improve the conduct of the security personnel in their duty in Aceh," he said.
Rights activists have accused soldiers and police of numerous excesses in Aceh. The US State Department in its annual rights report said Monday that security forces "were responsible for numerous instances of, at times indiscriminate, shooting of civilians, torture, rape, beatings and other abuse, and arbitrary detention in Aceh" and elsewhere in Indonesia. The report also rapped killings of civilians by the separatists.
On February 3, representatives from the Indonesian government and GAM ended their latest peace talks in Switzerland without reaching a deal but agreeing to further talks at an unspecified date.
During his stay in Banda Aceh, Yudhoyono held talks with Governor Abdullah Puteh, other local officials and the heads of the military and police command.