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Aceh warns Jakarta to keep its promises, or else

Source
Jakarta Post - August 9, 2014

Jakarta – The Aceh provincial administration has called on the central government to immediately finish the deliberation of crucial regulations as mandated by the Aceh Governance Law.

Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah said that almost nine years after the signing of the Helsinki Peace Accord, most regulations to implement the peace deal remained works in progress. He also said that the governance law could not yet be implemented because of a lack of supporting regulations.

The Helsinki Peace Accord, which was signed by the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Aug. 15, 2005, was the result of negotiations between both parties to end their conflict, while the Aceh Governance Law is the product of a memorandum of understanding (MoU).

Zaini said that in 2013, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono promised the Aceh people that derivative rules for the law would be ready before he stepped down from office in October 2014. However, there are currently only three government regulations and two presidential decrees. The Aceh Governance Law mandates that there should be nine government regulations and three presidential decrees.

Zaini said the central government needed to immediately draft the regulations or disappointment among the Aceh people could lead to further conflict between the central government and the people of Aceh.

"If the promise is broken, the Aceh people will feel betrayed and the bloody conflict could reoccur," he said in a discussion on Friday.

Zaini said that the central government should at least finish drafting several crucial regulations including the regulation on joint management of natural resources and natural gas and on central government authority in Aceh.

Also urgent is the presidential decree on the handing over of the National Land Agency (BPN) regional office to the Aceh provincial administration.

The Home Ministry's regional autonomy director general, Djohermansyah Djohan, said that actually all drafts of the government regulations and presidential decrees had been completed in 2010, but they had to be shelved due to the rising political tension surrounding the gubernatorial election which resulted in the election of Zaini.

He said that the central government was currently working to finish the three crucial regulations and was engaged in negotiations with the Aceh provincial administration.

Djohan said that if the negotiations were deadlocked, the ministry would arrange a direct meeting between the Aceh governor and President Yudhoyono so that they could be finished by the time the President wrapped up his term in October.

Zaini said that he was optimistic that the problems could soon be resolved. The Governor also said that he was ready to negotiate with the new government if the deadlock could not be settled during Yudhoyono's remaining time in office.

He was optimistic that with Jusuf Kalla likely serving as the next vice-president negotiations could proceed smoothly. Kalla was involved in peacemaking efforts in Aceh during the Helsinki Peace Accord. (ask)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/09/aceh-warns-jakarta-keep-its-promises-or-else.html

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