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Indonesia, Aceh rebels to hold next talks under cloud

Source
Reuters - May 25, 2005

Dean Yates, Jakarta – Indonesian negotiators and Acehnese rebels Will begin a fourth round of peace talks in Helsinki on Thursday, with the atmosphere badly strained by the government's rejection of a key separatist demand.

Indonesian Information Minister Sofyan Djalil told Reuters last week that Jakarta had decided the rebels would not be allowed to contest elections as a local party under any deal aimed at ending one of Asia's longest running separatist wars.

At the last round in April, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) proposed changes to electoral laws that stipulate parties must be nationally based, with branch representation in more than half of Indonesia's provinces and their headquarters in Jakarta.

Jakarta's refusal could ultimately scuttle the talks because it does not give GAM any face-saving way to take part in Aceh's political process and essentially means it would need to dissolve, said Edward Aspinall, a Southeast Asian studies lecturer at Sydney University and an expert on Aceh province.

"I think the chances are fairly high that the talks could simply fail," Aspinall told Reuters on Wednesday. "If it's a choice between continuing the armed struggle and dissolving itself, then I think at least a significant portion of the leadership will continue with the armed struggle."

The fourth round, to run from May 26-31, is expected to be the most important since the two sides revived peace talks under Finnish mediation after a giant earthquake and tsunami smashed into Aceh on Dec. 26, killing up to 160,000 people.

Previous rounds have seen agreements on economic matters, but little headway on key political and security issues apart from GAM's significant concession to drop its demands for independence in exchange for "self-government" for the province. This incorporated the issue of locally based political parties.

Last month, GAM said it would table a document on security arrangements at the fourth round. However, Jakarta has rejected demands that Indonesia's 30,000-40,000 troops be withdrawn.

Putting pressure on the government, Indonesia's parliament, where nationalism runs deep, warned this week that endless rounds of talks might give GAM time to regroup after a two-year military offensive cut into the rebels' strength on the ground. The war has killed around 12,000 people since 1976.

Parliamentary anxiety

Hajriyanto Thohari, deputy chairman of parliament's defence and foreign affairs commission, said parliament wanted the government to carefully review progress after the fourth round.

"There is huge anxiety in parliament and the predominant current is that most want the talks to be halted," Thohari, a member of Golkar, parliament's biggest party, said on Wednesday.

Damien Kingsbury, an Australian academic advising GAM, has said the Acehnese should have the right to form their own political parties. His comments coincided with threats from rebels in Aceh that their forces were still strong.

Despite his apparent tough stance, Djalil, one of the government's negotiators, said if progress was made only one more round would be needed and a pact could be signed by August.

He argued that allowing local parties would open the door to parties based on language, ethnicity and possibly extreme religious beliefs, which analysts say reflects the anxiety among Indonesia's political elite about keeping the diverse and sprawling archipelago united.

While expressing pessimism about a peace deal, Aspinall said there was a possibility GAM could make major concessions on the political party issue, but which would lead to a poorly defined agreement that would probably falter on implementation.

He said it was unlikely the Indonesian military would ever withdraw large numbers of troops from Aceh.

The government has said a cloud over its chief negotiator, Justice Minister Hamid Awaluddin, would not affect the talks.

Indonesia's president this week gave investigators permission to question Awaluddin as part of a probe into a 2004 kickback scandal at the election commission. Awaluddin was a senior figure in the commission at the time.

[With additional reporting by Achmad Sukarsono]

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