HELSINKI, July 17, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News
Agencies) Indonesia's government and Aceh separatists reached an
agreement to bring peace to the troubled province after a 30-year conflict
and will sign a memo of understanding on August 15.
"The memorandum details the agreement and the
principles that will guide the transformation process in Aceh," the
government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said on Sunday, July 17, after
marathon talks in Helsinki, reported Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
The agreement is to bring a "peaceful, comprehensive
and sustainable solution" to end a conflict that has raged in the province
since 1976 and cost nearly 15,000 lives.
Both sides agreed that "no substantive changes" will
be introduced to the initialed memorandum before it is signed on August 15
in Finland.
No details of Sunday's deal were made public, but the
statement said that it covers the governing of Aceh, including political
participation, as well as the questions of human rights, amnesty and
reintegration into society, security arrangements, and dispute
settlement.
Both sides also agreed to establish a monitoring
mission in the province to check on progress which they hoped would be run
by the EU and a number of Asian countries.
GAM wanted to form its own party while Jakarta
resisted changes to election laws requiring all local parties to have a
national presence.
It has given up its historic demand for independence
for the province on Sumatra island, which has rich deposits of natural
gas.
The peace deal will involve GAM fighters laying down
their arms and getting an amnesty and Indonesian troops
withdrawing.
It may also mean the return to Aceh of the political
leaders of GAM from three decades of exile in Stockholm with the ageing
Prince Hasan di Tiro whom they consider their head of state.
The devoutly Muslim province of 4 million people on
the northern tip of the island of Sumatra has been a battleground since
1976 when GAM launched its campaign for independence, angered by what it
said was Jakarta's exploitation of the province's resources.
When they convened for a first round of Helsinki talks
in January it was the first time the parties had come face to face since
May 2003, when Jakarta declared martial law and launched a major military
offensive in Aceh.
The renewed efforts to make peace were prompted by a
need for international aid to reach Aceh, which bore the brunt of last
December's tsunami which killed more than 131,000 people in the
province.
"Historic"
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"It is a historic moment, we
finally reach a peaceful settlement," said Djalil
(L).
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"It is a historic moment, we finally reach a peaceful
settlement that has been longed for so many years by the people of Aceh
and by the people of Indonesia," Indonesian Information Minister Sofyan
Djalil told Reuters.
"Society can live peacefully and we can rebuild Aceh
after it has been destroyed by the tsunami," he said.
Djalil called the deal on GAM's political future a
"middle way" between GAM wanting to form a party and Jakarta worrying it
would require changes to the constitution and might encourage other
religious and ethnic groups to seek similar status.
Despite the announcement, Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono remained adamant Sunday on the establishment of local
political parties in Aceh.
"I have repeatedly explained that the Indonesian
political party system is a national system," he said.
Yudhoyono said that Jakarta would "not readily allow
the establishment of local political parties."
He added that the separatists will have "political
rights, that along with the other elements in Aceh they have opportunities
to take part in the existing political process".
Following a grueling day of negotiations on Saturday,
July 16, GAM announced confidently that the final sticking point in the
talks, local political participation in the province, had been
resolved.
The group said it was "pleased to announce that, in
negotiation with the government of Indonesia ..., it has reached an
in-principle agreement on the question of the establishment of local
political parties in Aceh".
GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah told AFP on Wednesday,
July 13 that an "amazingly surprising" advances have been made in the peace
talks.
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