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STATE OF
ACHEH CLARITY NEEDED TO REACH PEACE AGREEMENT The Free Acheh Movement (GAM) says the Acheh peace talks held under the auspices of the Crisis Management Initiative of President Ahtisaari has made further progress towards reaching an agreement to end Acheh’s long-running conflict. The 5th round of the peace talks being held at Konigstedt, Vantaa, outside Helsinki, is intended to finalise drafting a peace agreement by tomorrow, Saturday 16 July 2005. According to GAM, an agreement in principle may now be possible. However, issues remained to be resolved to reach such an agreement. Spokesman for GAM, Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah, said that GAM still required a clear commitment from the Government of Indonesia (GoI) delegation on the question of local political parties. ‘GAM has found that the Government of Indonesia delegation says one thing on the creation of local political parties in Acheh, but puts something different when it comes to presenting a written proposal,’ Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah said. ‘The time for playing games is over. Either the Government of Indonesia supports democracy and wants peace or it does not. There can be no middle ground on peace and democracy.’ Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah acknowledged that the GoI delegation had begun to move towards a more open political process in Acheh. ‘But when it comes to local political parties, they still only say they will ‘explore’ the ‘possibility’, he said. ‘If the GoI is sincere about this it will use clear and definite language. If it does not use clear and definite language, GAM cannot believe GoI is being sincere in its proposal and thus must reject it.’ Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah said the whole peace process now hung on this point. ‘After more than five months of negotiations, we are now almost at the point where we can sign an agreement to end Acheh’s conflict, to allow the post-tsunami reconstruction process to go ahead, and to facilitate the future development of our homeland,’ Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah said. ‘To reach that point, the GoI must now be absolutely clear that it supports democracy and will facilitate the creation of local political parties.’ Signed, Mr Bakhtiar Abdullah
Spokesman, GAM Contact: +46-706993982, or +358-(0)408116678 |
