Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A number of legislators backed Thursday a call for the inclusion of articles into the bill on Aceh governance specifically disbanding the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

The call was raised by former Aceh military commander Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, a government representative in the EU-led Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), during a hearing late Wednesday in the House of Representatives.

Bambang threatened to dissolve GAM along with SIRA, a non-governmental organization campaigning for an independence referendum in Aceh, and the Aceh Transition Committee (KPA) if the House passed the controversial bill into law.

"Last year, the TNA (the National Aceh Armed Forces established by GAM) was disbanded after the decommissioning phase was completed. GAM, SIRA and KPA must also be dissolved after the bill is passed into law. Otherwise, I will dissolve them," Bambang told the hearing.

The KPA is assisting GAM in transforming from an independence movement into political force. Bambang said the KPA must register with the local authorities if it wanted to remain in existence.

Legislator Idham of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said GAM as an organization could not exist in its current form after the bill was passed.

Lawmaker Saifullah Ma'shum from the National Awakening Party (PKB) said GAM should have dissolved after it signed a truce with the government in August last year.

Under the Helsinki peace accord, the rebel group abandoned its violent campaign for Aceh's independence and instead demanded self-rule inside the Unitary State of Indonesia. The pact also allowed former GAM combatants to contest direct local elections.

AMM chief Peter Feith has called on GAM and SIRA to change their names. GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said both groups were still considering the idea.

Meanwhile, political observer Ikrar Nusa Bhakti told a hearing of the House special committee deliberating the bill that the draft law should be made consistent with other regulations on Aceh.

"There is no point creating a beautiful (law) if it cannot be implemented," he said. If the articles in the bill did not fit well with other existing legislation, it could create serious legal problems in the future, like in the other special autonomy region of Papua, Ikrar said.

The bill implements the peace deal in Aceh, creating the legal basis for the special regional and gubernatorial elections in the province.