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| Southeast Asia |
| More on the Aceh peace deal |
| 2005-08-15 |
| The Indonesian government and Aceh rebels on Monday signed a peace treaty to end nearly 30 years of fighting in the oil- and gas-rich province that has killed 15,000 people. The signing ceremony in Helsinki followed seven months of talks mediated by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who spurred the two sides to agreement to help international aid reach the region that was devastated by last year's tsunami. The pact gives amnesty to members of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM. It was signed by Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin and Malik Mahmud, an exiled rebel leader who was briefly jailed in Sweden last year after Indonesia accused him of terrorism. Also, an Indonesian court Monday sentenced the alleged mastermind of 2002 bombing of a McDonald's restaurant to life in prison, saying the Islamic militant planned the attack that came just weeks after the Bali nightclub attacks. The accord, which became possible after GAM agreed to disarm and to renounce a demand for full independence, will be overseen by monitors from the European Union and Southeast Asian countries. The peace process was initiated by Ahtisaari, a former peace broker in the Balkans and Namibia, after he was approached by the Indonesian government to help find a solution to the conflict. GAM leaders, who have been living in exile in neighboring Sweden for decades, also backed the choice of Ahtisaari and joined in the talks that were held at a secluded manor house outside the Finnish capital. After the tsunami, which killed 130,000 people in Aceh alone, aid workers poured into the formerly closed province, leading to international pressure on Jakarta to halt the violence — particularly from the United States and the European Union. A previous truce ended after only six months in 2003, when the Indonesian army expelled foreign observers, declared martial law, arrested rebel negotiators and mounted an offensive in which more than 3,000 people died. Hostilities in the area broke out in 1976. Although many Acehnese wanted an end to the bloodshed, there was general support for independence because of abuses. Human rights groups accuse Indonesia's army of executions, disappearances, torture and rapes. Aceh, once an independent sultanate, was invaded in 1870 by the Dutch, who attached it to their East Indies colony, which gained independence as Indonesia in 1949. The peace agreement comes on the heels of the conviction of Agung Abdul Hamid, 38, who was found guilty of being the "field coordinator and financier" of the early evening bombing that killed three people in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar. The dead and injured were all Indonesians. "The defendant Agung Abdul Hamid ... has been convincingly proven guilty of planning or inciting other people to carry out an act of terrorism that resulted in casualties and destruction of public facilities," Judge Andi Haidar told the court. Haidar said Hamid was guilty of violating the country's harsh anti-terror law and the 1951 Emergency Law on illegal possession of arms and explosives. Prosecutors, who had demanded the death sentence for Hamid, described how he supplied the explosives and paid four others to take part in the December 2002 attack on the restaurant in the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar. Authorities who arrested him after massive manhunt said he was part of Laskar Jundullah, a little-known militant group believed to have connections with the al Qaeda-linked terror group Jemaah Islamiyah. He also is accused of meeting Malaysian militant Azahari bin Husin in Jakarta. Azahari is accused of masterminding the Sept. 9 suicide attack outside the Australian Embassy that killed at least 11 people. Azahari remains on the run, along with fellow Malaysian militant Noordin Mohamed Top. Hamid told reporters afterward that he was innocent and would appeal the verdict. "I reject the sentence because all these charges are false. The trial is engineered and full of American intervention," Hamid told reporters. "Allah Akbar (God is great). I will challenge this unfair verdict." At least 17 other men have been convicted and sentenced to jail terms ranging from two to 19 years over the Makassar blast, which came less than two months after bombings at nightclubs on Bali island killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Many of those found guilty are alleged to have fought in a bloody war between Muslims and Christians in central Sulawesi in 2000 that left 1,000 people dead. Since the Bali bombings, suicide bombers have struck at the J.W. Marriott hotel and the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Jemaah Islamiyah, some of whose members are believed to have had contacts with senior al Qaeda figures, has been blamed for the attacks. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |