Maire Leadbeater: Peace arrives slowly in Aceh

Maire Leadbeater

For once the press and TV images from Aceh are positive. Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fighters are handing in their guns while international monitors don safety gear and prepare to destroy the weapons with a circular saw.

Not far away, a brass band plays while Indonesian soldiers happily embark on the troop ship that will take them home.

A few weeks ago, just before the signing of the historic August 15 peace accord, I was in Banda Aceh. I was told that the security forces had relaxed their grip since foreigners poured in to help with the aid effort.

However, the armed police were ever-present and the tank-like vehicles were a clear reminder that Aceh is only just emerging from life under military emergency laws.

Over the past 29 years the military has been responsible for rapes, abductions, torture and arbitrary executions, and some 15,000 people have lost their lives.

However, only about half of the troops and paramilitary police will be leaving, as the peace deal stipulates that 25,000 "organic" or local troops can stay.

Despite this, GAM has agreed to give up all its weapons by the end of the year.

GAM fighter are taking the risk and trusting that the amnesty is genuine. Many have returned to join their families in the villages and even in the capital, Banda Aceh.

The circuit-breaker which led to the peace deal was GAM's decision to accept "self-government" within the unitary state of Indonesia rather than to hold out for independence or a self-determination referendum.

Their leaders say that in the light of the tragedy of the tsunami, peace is more important.

But civil society leaders are worried about the "peace spoilers". Hard-line nationalist parliamentarians such as former President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her Democratic Party of Struggle colleagues have been critics of the deal, which they see as the thin end of the wedge that could see Aceh break away from the unitary republic.

However, key ministers led by Vice-President Jusuf Kalla and supported by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appear to have gained the upper hand.

More to be feared are the spoilers within the military, which has major financial interests in Aceh and an ideological hatred of autonomy.

Since May 2003, when martial law was imposed, the military has been recruiting civilians as members of anti-GAM militias. The Indonesian Minister of Communications, Sofyan Djalil has asked the police to dissolve and disarm the armed civilian groups, but human rights activists fear that these groups may be responsible for the shooting incidents which have marred the otherwise successful peace process.

It is unfortunate that the international spotlight on Aceh has dimmed since the time of the tsunami.

The peace agreement mediated by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari on behalf of the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) will be heavily reliant on the work of the 227 peace monitors from European and ASEAN countries.

In 2002, GAM and the Indonesian Government signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement which collapsed after only a few months.

The foreign peace monitors came under attack from militia groups and were forced to withdraw.

This agreement has a better chance of success because it has much stronger buy-in from the Indonesian Government, as well as world leaders from Kofi Annan and George W. Bush down.

After all, the huge international investment in Aceh's redevelopment can be safeguarded only if peace is restored.

Sometimes it is suggested that the people in Aceh do not want foreigners who may not respect their Islamic way of life.

My experience suggested that the contrary is true. In Aceh, religious observance is closely woven into the ordinary routines of daily life and people are committed to their faith in a way that is unfamiliar in the secular West. But the outsider is not made to feel like an intruder.

On my last night I talked to several tsunami survivors beside their tent. Someone asked how they felt about foreigners who inevitably made mistakes.

The response was swift. "There are no mistakes. The foreigners should stay, they are needed."

* Maire Leadbeater is a spokesperson for Indonesia Human Rights Committee.