Indonesia close to Aceh peace deal

Indonesia has poured troops into troubled Aceh

The Indonesian Government and leaders of separatist rebels in its troubled Aceh province are expected to sign a deal early next month which could end 26 years of violence, international mediators have said.

The main point now is to stop the fighting and get this process of dialogue started

Bill Dowell
Henry Dunant Centre

The deal calls for an immediate end to violence and sets out plans for elections to set up an autonomous government in Aceh in 2004.

The Indonesian Government and a spokesman for the rebels' leadership-in-exile confirmed the deal, but both sides said outstanding issues must still be agreed.

It is also unclear whether rebel leaders in Aceh will support the deal, which offers only autonomy and not the referendum on full independence that the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been calling for.

"Why should we accept autonomy? It's short of our demands," Teungku Agam, GAM's military spokesman in Aceh told the BBC's East Asia Today.

"We conclude that we would have a meeting, a dialogue on 9 December, not to sign anything but to have a dialogue," he said.

GAM's chief negotiator in Sweden, Zaini Abdullah, called for the signing of the proposed deal as a first step.

"The first thing we have to do is (agree) a ceasefire in the field. After that we can discuss the political solution," he said.

'Ceasefire first'

Mediators from the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HDC) have been trying to broker a peace deal for almost three years.

Peace process

Immediate ceasefire

150 international monitors to oversee 'peace zones'

Prepare for free elections by 2004

Rebels to put their arms "in storage"

Indonesian military to stop its offensive

The organisation's Bill Dowell, who is in Aceh, called the 9 December deal a key step forwards.

"The questions of autonomy can be discussed as the whole process continues," he told the BBC.

"The main point now is to stop the fighting and get this process of dialogue started."

He said he was confident that both sides were now determined to end the bloodshed which has claimed more than 10,000 mainly civilian lives since 1976.

The apparent breakthrough came as thousands of Indonesian troops continued to besiege a rebel base south-west of the industrial centre of Lhokseumawe, in what appears to be the biggest military operation in Aceh for months.

Key sticking points

Indonesia's top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono confirmed the 9 December signing but said there were issues still to be resolved.

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"The unfinished issue is on how, when, and in what way the surrender of arms can be conducted, where will the peace zone be located, and how would the police and soldiers adapt to this," he said.

GAM's Teungku Agam said the movement's fighters on the ground were not ready to accept the proposal that they should stockpile their weapons in return for the Indonesian military ending its offensive.

"We know who we deal with. The Indonesian Government - we cannot trust them," he said.

The peace plan's first step is a ceasefire. A 150-member team of international monitors, including former military officers from Europe and Asia, would then oversee security.

If implemented in full, the province's four million inhabitants would get more autonomy, with "free and fair" elections to a provincial legislature and administration.

Aceh - once an independent sultanate - has a long history of rebellion, dating back to resistance to Dutch colonialists.

Acehnese fought for Indonesian independence from the Dutch, but in the early 1950s they took up arms against Jakarta when their demands for greater self-government were not met.

Our correspondent in Jakarta, Jonathan Head, says that if the rebels do agree to the autonomy package, it should allay Indonesia's worries that Aceh would break away and prompt the disintegration of its national territory.