Jakarta – Indonesia's president on Thursday offered concessions to separatist rebels in tsunami-devastated Aceh province if they agree to a cease-fire in upcoming peace talks.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he had offered rebel leaders "new talks for ending the conflict peacefully and wisely. I heard that the response is positive," he said in an interview with CNBC Asia Pacific television.
The warring sides are scheduled to meet in Helsinki, Finland, on Friday to try to hammer out a formal cease-fire. Indonesia wants the talks to be followed by more substantive negotiations on the status of Aceh.
The Free Aceh Movement, known by the Indonesian acronym GAM, has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the Holland-sized province of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island. A previous truce collapsed in 2003 when the Indonesian military launched a new offensive against the insurgents.
At the time, Indonesia's parliament approved a special autonomy package for the resource-rich province which would give its people self-government while keeping them within Indonesia, but the measure was never implemented because of the fighting.
Since assuming office 100 days ago, Yudhoyono has repeatedly said he wished to restart the peace process, and last month's tsunami, which badly damaged the province, has provided a catalyst for the talks.
"I have to continue our talks with GAM leadership with the hope that this momentum can be used wisely and properly by GAM as well as my government to terminate the conflict and to unite, rebuild Aceh peacefully," he said.
"If we agree to terminate the conflict based on the special autonomy status, I will give some concessions to them," Yudhoyono said, adding that these would include an amnesty for the rebels and measures to reintegrate rebel fighters.
Mediators at the talks have said the rebels are unlikely to agree to anything less than an internationally supervised independence referendum like the one that ended Indonesian rule in East Timor in 1999. Pro-independence sentiments are very strong in Aceh and Jakarta's rule is widely despised, making it likely that any free vote would result in a landslide victory for the separatists.
"Our struggle does not acknowledge any wide-ranging autonomy or special autonomy offered by Indonesia," said rebel leader Tengku Mucksalmina by telephone from his mountain hideout. "Our struggle is always to gain independence for Aceh."
"It is Indonesia which has to get out from our country, Aceh. Indonesia is the colonizer," he said, adding that the insurgents would respect whatever deal their leadership reached in Finland. Another key rebel demand has been the full withdrawal of Indonesian forces.
In the interview, Yudhoyono said the military presence would likely decrease after a cease-fire, but that some troops would remain. "Actually, it depends on how could we terminate the conflict," he said. "Because, after all, security is needed by our brothers and sisters in Aceh. That's the objective of deploying and employing military units in Aceh right now."