Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Former rebels in Aceh will form a political party within six months, opening up the way for their participation in the 2009 national elections, officials said Saturday.
"We're ready to form a political party once the government endorses the regulation on the formation of local political parties which is expected to be finished before the end of this year," said the former prime minister in exile of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Mali Mahmud, to reporter in Banda Aceh on Saturday.
The statement was made following a closed-door final meeting of a commission on security arrangements at the home of acting Aceh governor Mustafa Abubakar.
The meeting was attended by Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) chief Pieter Feith, the government's representative at the AMM, Maj. Gen. Bambang Darmono, and Information and Communications Minister Sofyan A. Djalil.
GAM was represented by Malik Mahmud, GAM's senior representative at the AMM, Zakaria Saman, and other executives.
Pieter Feith said there was an understanding that GAM would start its transition to a political party as soon as the government enacted the regulation. Six months after that GAM will have set up a local political party, he said. He said he believed that after the process was launched GAM was likely to be dissolved by the middle of 2007.
The formation of a local political party which will then be followed by the disbandment of GAM was one of the key points agreed on during the signing of the peace deal between the government and GAM in Helsinki, Finland, last year.
However, Malik said there were plans to dissolve GAM but did not give a timetable. "The transition process of GAM becoming a local political party has been agreed to but it will depend on the situation since it will require planning and time," Malik said.
The announcement comes just weeks before Aceh residents head for the polls to vote for a governor and deputy governor in the landmark Dec. 11 elections. The elections, the first since the peace deal was signed and brought and end to the decades of civil war that left at least 15,000 people dead, will also choose the province's mayors and regents.
Former GAM members will still take part in the Dec. 11 elections, but as independents. GAM is endorsing no candidates in the upcoming elections.
The International Crisis Group said in a recent report that differences over candidates have split GAM's leadership, raising questions about the movement's political future.
However, Malik said Saturday that such differences were common in any organization, especially as Aceh was gearing up for the elections. "But I've instructed GAM field commanders to solve all problems," he said, adding the instructions were to tell members not to move against one another and stressed "the need for all sides to respect the upcoming election and to maintain peace".