Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The head of the Aceh and Nias Reconstruction Agency (BRR) praised on Friday the role of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the work being done to rebuild the tsunami-hit province.
Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said the GAM representative on the BRR, Tengku Kamaruzzaman, played a major role in helping the agency carry out its work.
"We have picked up the pace of reconstruction in Aceh, thanks to Pak Kamaruzzaman," he said, praising the GAM representative's "vast networks" of contacts across the province. Kuntoro said that since Kamaruzzaman joined the BRR, following the signing of a peace deal between the government and GAM in August, the agency had been able to penetrate areas that "were previously difficult to get into".
He cited an incident when a number of men, claiming to be GAM members, attempted to extort money and materials from a non-governmental organization that was constructing houses. "We asked Pak Kamaruzzaman whether they were GAM members or hoodlums. He found out they were hoodlums, so we contacted the police and asked them to step in," he said.
Seated next to Kuntoro, Kamaruzzaman simply responded to questions by saying he was not in a position to talk about GAM.
Before the peace accord was signed on Aug. 15, 2005, by the government and GAM in Helsinki, Finland, Kamaruzzaman was serving a prison sentence for his involvement with the separatist group.
Kuntoro and Kamaruzzaman were speaking to the press after a meeting on Friday in Jakarta with Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who supervised the talks in Finland. Later in the day, Farid Hussein, one of the government negotiators at the Helsinki talks, also met with Kalla.
Sources said the separate meetings discussed efforts to establish a long-lasting peace in Aceh, the role of the Aceh Monitoring Mission in the province, deliberations of a draft law on governing the province and the establishment of local political parties in Aceh.
About 65,000 people displaced by the Dec. 26 tsunami are still living in tents almost a year after the disaster.
Kuntoro said BRR was working to complete the construction of some 110,000 houses by 2007. The agency has built 16,200 houses and is currently working on another 16,000 homes. Security is a critical factor in speeding up the pace of construction, he added.
Kalla said on Thursday peace building in Aceh was on the right track following this month's implementation of the final phase of the peace deal to end 29 years of separatist fighting.
The decommissioning of GAM's weapons, which began after the signing of the peace accord, is expected to conclude on Saturday. Another 5,800 government soldiers are scheduled to leave Aceh later this month.
Under the peace accord, GAM is required to surrender some 840 weapons, while the government must withdraw 24,000 soldiers and police officers, both by the end of the year.
Peter Feith, who heads the international Aceh Monitoring Mission, said he was "impressed" by how few conflicts there had been since the start of decommissioning and how well the two sides had abided by the agreement.
"We've seen no more than a handful of serious cases. It's encouraging to see so few incidents take place. This is not to say Aceh has become Switzerland, but if put in perspective, I'm encouraged, if not impressed, by the efforts on both sides," he was quoted by Deutche Presse-Agence as saying.
A recent report by the Brussels-based International Crisis Group also said tensions between the two sides had eased since the start of the peace process.
However, continuing disagreements between GAM leaders and the government, particularly in regard to dispersing reintegration funds to the GAM rebels who have laid down their arms, "speaks volumes about the reservoir of distrust that still has to be drained", the report said.