Jakarta – Uncovering human right abuses in Aceh will likely take time because of strong resistance from the military and police, observers say.

Speaking at launch for the book, Aceh: Damai dengan Masa Lalu - Mengungkap Kekerasan Masa Lalu (Aceh: Peace with the Past - Uncovering Past Violence) by the National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), academics, activists and legislators called for rights abuses in the province to be speedily settled.

Elizabeth Drexler, an assistant professor at the Michigan State University's Department of Anthropology, said some people had argued it was better to let bygones be bygones, rather than uncover the perpetrators of 30 years of violence in Aceh.

"There is a certain kind of discourse, which says the past is the past," Drexler said. However, if the government made it difficult for victims of violence to seek justice, it was also committing a form of state violence, and legal settlements of human rights violations were vital, she said.

Conflict in Aceh between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the military started in 1976, when Hasan Tiro declared the establishment of GAM to fight a guerrilla war for Aceh's independence from Indonesia. The government later began systematically attempting to eradicate GAM by declaring Aceh an area of military operations from 1989 to 1998.

Hope for peace was rekindled after the signing of a peace agreement between Indonesia and GAM in Helsinki, Finland, last year. The agreement offers an amnesty to GAM members and promotes the reintegration of former guerrillas into the community.

It also mandates the establishment of Human Rights Court and a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation for Aceh.

Speaking at the book launch, Komnas HAM's MM Billah said there were strong indications that gross human rights violations had been committed by soldiers and GAM members.

Legislator Ahmad Farhan Hamid, who is a member of the special committee for the deliberation of the Aceh governance bill, said it was imperative a human rights court for Aceh be established.

He said the court should be able to try all human rights violations, past and present.

Ahmad said legislators had yet to talk about establishing the court. However, he stressed the body was an important part of the bill and would not sacrificed as a bargaining tool.

Meanwhile, a coalition group representing NGOs fighting human rights abuses, the Indonesian Advocacy Team for Truth and Justice, said the law mandating the Commission for Truth and Reconciliation was unconstitutional. The group filed a request last Tuesday to the Constitutional Court, asking for a judicial review of the law.

Team coordinator Taufik Basari said some articles in the law were discriminatory and supported giving impunity to perpetrators.

Article 44 of the law states that serious human rights violations settled by the commission cannot be tried again at an Ad Hoc Human Rights Court.

Taufik said the commission should not be used as a substitute for a proper a human rights court.

Article 27 on the compensation and rehabilitation for victims, and Article 1 (9) on the definition of amnesty were also unconstitutional, he said.