Jakarta – Separatists from Aceh province have dismissed a government offer of self-government for the tsunami-hit region ahead of a new round of peace talks in Finland this week.
In a statement received Monday, the rebels also demanded the release of four of their negotiators who were arrested by Indonesian authorities two years ago – despite a government guarantee of safe-conduct.
"We will now ask publicly that our negotiators held in jails in Java be released to continue the duties they performed previously," the statement said.
Officials and mediators say that Indonesia's government and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement made significant headway during the previous two rounds of talks in January and February in the Finnish capital of Helsinki.
The next meeting between the warring sides is scheduled to open on Tuesday.
Indonesia's vice president has predicted an agreement could be reached by July on the basis of the so-called special autonomy law which the government in Jakarta adopted three years ago but never implemented.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) announced a unilateral truce in the war because of the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 130,000 people in the province. But government troops have continued anti-insurgency operations.
Damien Kingsbury, an Indonesia specialist from Australia's Deakin University who is part of the Acehnese delegation, said he did not regard the Indonesian autonomy proposal as acceptable. "The Special Autonomy proposal is inadequate and provides a framework only for continued repression in Aceh," Kingsbury said.
GAM has been demanding free elections for a regional legislature, the full withdrawal of the 50,000 Indonesian troops and paramilitary police deployed to the province, and a UN-supervised independence referendum.
"It may be possible to reach a negotiated political settlement in Aceh under an alternative political arrangement [which] must ensure effective and sustainable self-determination," Kingsbury said.
The rebels also demanded the release of Mohammed Nazar, Aceh's most prominent human rights advocate, who was imprisoned and sentenced in 2002 to five years in jail for appealing to foreign governments to help end the war.