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Indonesia, Aceh rebels agree peace deal in Helsinki
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-07-18 10:03
The Indonesian government and rebels have reached a groundbreaking agreement
to end 30 years of fighting in the Aceh province and a memorandum of
understanding will be formally signed next month, both sides said.
"There will be peace," Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid
Awaluddin told reporters Sunday.
"The Memorandum details the agreement and the principles that will guide the
transformation process in Aceh," both sides said in a joint statement at the end
of a fifth round of negotiations between the government and the Free Aceh
Movement (GAM).
Indonesian negotiators Farid Husein (L), Hamid
Awaluddin (C) and Sofyan Djalil attends a news conference in Helsinki,
Finland, July 17, 2005. Indonesia and Aceh rebels will sign a truce on
August 15 after agreeing on Sunday a formula for ending the 30-year-old
conflict that has cost 12,000 lives in the province devastated by last
December's tsunami.[Reuters] | The agreement is to
bring a "peaceful, comprehensive and sustainable solution" to end a conflict
that has raged in the province since 1976 and cost nearly 15,000 lives.
Both sides agreed that "no substantive changes" will be introduced to the
eight-page long initialed memorandum before it is signed on August 15 in
Finland.
"We may add a comma or correct a spelling mistake," peace talks mediator
Martti Ahtisaari told reporters, refusing however to reveal any of the details
of the accord before it is formally signed.
"The parties have agreed that the details of the memorandum will not be made
public before the signing," he said, only disclosing that the agreement among
other things covered the governing of Aceh, including political participation,
as well as the questions of human rights, amnesty and reintegration into
society, security arrangements, and dispute settlement.
A final deal would call for an immediate end to the still ongoing fighting in
the province.
"Of course all hostilities have to end with the signing of the memorandum of
understanding on the 15th of August," he said.
Both sides also agreed to establish a Aceh monitoring mission to check on
progress which they hoped would be run by the European Union and a number of
Asian countries.
Ahtisaari said the EU had not formally replied to the invitation, but would
dispatch experts to Indonesia by the end of this month to prepare a decision.
"There's no formal decision yet by the EU (but) I hope that the decision can
now be made when the initialing of the agreement has taken place," he said.
The ongoing round of talks, which began on Tuesday and which is the fifth
held in the Finnish capital since January, had been considered a last chance to
bring an end to the bloodshed soon.
When they convened for a first round of Helsinki talks in January it was the
first time the parties had come face to face since May 2003, when Jakarta
declared martial law and launched a major military offensive in the province.
The renewed efforts to make peace were prompted by a need for international
aid to reach Aceh, which bore the brunt of last December's tsunami. More than
131,000 people in the province perished.
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