Indonesia to send high-level delegation to Helsinki talks

Discussions expected to begin during weekend

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

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The Indonesian government is sending a high-level negotiating team to the peace talks with rebels from Aceh Province. The negotiations are to held in Helsinki, presided over by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
      The negotiators are travelling from Jakarta to Finland today, Wednesday.
      The Indonesian government team will be led by former army commander Widodo Adi Sutjipto. The group will also include Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and Minister of Justice Hamid Awaluddin. They will form the highest-level Indonesian negotiation team since a peace agreement was signed in 2002 during the administration of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
      The agreement on autonomy for Aceh collapsed in May 2003, after which the Indonesian army launched a massive offensive in the province.
      President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who was elected in September, has said that peace in Aceh is one of his main priorities.
     
Negotiators on the rebels' side are expected to include representatives of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), who live in exile in Stockholm: the movement's "prime minister" Malik Mahmud and "foreign minister" Zaini Abdullah. The two will represent GAM's founder Hasan di Tiro, who is over 80 years of age and unable to attend the talks due to ill health.
      The Indonesian government has previously held talks with representatives of the breakaway faction MP-GAM, which is led from Malaysia, although some of its key figures have also lived in Sweden.
      The rebel groups have been at war with each other. Before the major offensive of 2003 the original GAM ordered that all MP-GAM military commanders operating in Aceh be arrested as traitors. This was part of GAM's "integration process".
      There has been no word yet on the position or participation of possible rival independence groups in the negotiation process.
     
Indonesian sources say that the talks will begin this weekend. Ahtisaari's office has said that a press conference on the talks will be held on Monday.
      The aim of the negotiations is to achieve at least a cease fire between pro-independence guerrillas and Indonesian army forces to facilitate relief efforts after the recent tsunami. The sides agreed on an unofficial cease fire immediately after the waves hit the island of Sumatra, but the truce has not been complete.
      Last week the army said that its forces had killed 120 guerrillas in the past two weeks after rebels had been looting aid convoys.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Aceh rebels hope Helsinki talks will lead to cease fire (25.1.2005)
  Preliminary Indonesian peace talks to begin in Helsinki (24.1.2005)

Helsingin Sanomat