Rebel negotiator Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba said on Sunday that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists would agree to lay down arms if the process was carried out according to the "mechanism agreed in the Cessation of Hostilities agreement" signed on December 9. The December peace pact was to have launched a process in February that provided for the rebels to store their weapons at sites known only to themselves and international monitors and stipulated that troops simultaneously withdraw to defensive positions.
| Doesn't sound like a surrender, does it? |
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said late Saturday that GAM must recognise the "unitary state of Indonesia," accept special autonomy for the province rather than independence and start disarming. "If GAM's response, which we will find out tomorrow afternoon, does not give a positive answer to what the Indonesian government has conveyed, the joint operation will be carried out under a presidential decree," Susilo said, adding that a decree authorising a joint security and humanitarian operation would be issued by Monday at the latest. Sofyan warned that any military action would result in many civilian deaths.
| "We'll make sure that happens..." |
He claimed that it's an undeniable fact that some Acehnese support independence. "Maybe it will only take three months for the Jakarta government to finish the military operation but does it have to kill half of the population to end the conflict?" he said.
| That's been the pattern, hasn't it? |
Susilo said the joint operation would impose martial law in Aceh but this could be relaxed if the rebels stopped fighting and started disarming within a week of the Tokyo meeting. Last-ditch efforts to salvage the peace process were Sunday underway in Tokyo, as Indonesian officials and GAM negotiators met for the second of two days of talks.
| Given the amount of bad faith on both sides, I don't expect anything to come out of the talks, or if it does, that it won't be adhered to. It'll be a long, hot summer in Sumatra, just like in Kashmir. The only good that will come out of either will be the number of dead Islamists. |
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