|
|
|
|
PRESS RELEASE 31 May 2005 Brief Report on the running of the Fourth Round of the Helsinki Peace Talks between the Free Acheh Movement (GAM) and the Government of Indonesia (GoI), Helsinki, Finland, 26-31 May, 2005.
The 4th round of the peace talks between the representatives Free Acheh Movement (GAM) and of the Indonesian Government (GoI), mediated by the Helsinki based Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), has just ended with the parties holding their traditional end of Round press conferences. The CMI held its press conference at the Finnish Ministy of Foreign Affairs at 2 pm, followed by the Indonesians at their Embassy at 3 pm, while the GAM delegation held it at the Radison SAS Otaniemi Hotel outside Helsinki from 4.20 to 5 pm, before leaving for Stockholm at 7.00 pm. During the Round 4 sessions, both parties discussed matters relating to self-government, security arrangement, political issues, amnesty and justice/human rights. The parties who have previously passed some of their working papers to each other revisited the matters presented in the said papers. Although the parties have reached understanding and common grounds on most of the issues being discussed, including economic, political, amnesty, justice/human rights, and even security arrangement, there are still several crucial problems that have not been agreed upon. Most important among these problems are issues that the GoI side has rejected publicly in a press interview of the Indonesia delegation leader with Kompas, i.e, the rights of the Achehnese to form local political parties, the timing of the local legislative election in October 2005, immigration matters, and the continued use of Achehnese traditional symbols. The GoI also still wants to retain some elements of its Special Autonomy Law such as the current local legislative assembly (DPRD) until the end of its mandate in 2009, that has been totally rejected by the Achehnese side because it is against the principle of Self-Government. On May 30, the parties were honoured with the visit of 4 representatives of the European Union and the European Commission to obtain inputs in order to be able to make a decision if these European regional organisations would be willing to provide monitors for the implementation of the Agreement if it eventually signed by the parties. The 4th Round of the negotiations was often conducted in small group sessions consisting of the leadership of the parties and their advisers, with the CMI represented by President Ahtisaari himself. This system was found to be more effective and faster in reaching understanding to be presented later to the plenary session for a more formal deliberation. To end the Round 4, the CMI invited all members of the parties to a dinner at a prominent beach side hotel in Helsinki. The Achehnese delegation returned to Stockholm at 7.00 pm, and reported to HE the Head of State, Tengku Hasan di Tiro Bakhtiar Abdullah GAM Spokesman Refer also to CMIs press conference (video clip): http://formin.finland.fi/broadcast/viewFeed.asp?broadcastid=149 |
