Pact Raises Hope in Long-Troubled Indonesian Province, but Challenges Remain
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, January 1, 2006
MUREU, Indonesia -- Abdul Muthalib misses his AK-47. He carried it for 15 years as a rebel but gave up it up as part of a peace deal that ended almost 30 years of conflict in the province of Aceh, where he lives.
"The gun," he said, "it's like my second wife."
Muthalib traded his weapon for a motorbike taxi. On a good day, he makes about $5. He is hoping, he said, "to find something better."
The rebels of Aceh face an uncertain future, but for the province, being at peace already is something better. Military checkpoints are gone. People can move about freely.
Last week, the rebels officially disbanded their military, the Aceh National Armed Forces. Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, embraced the top rebel commanders in a moment of reconciliation. The last of 25,000 Indonesian soldiers sent to Aceh because of the conflict have left, and on Monday the last of the 7,000 special police officers are scheduled to withdraw.
"The peace deal proves that the Indonesian government is now capable of finding political answers to political problems, rather than military answers to political problems," said Damien Kingsbury, a political science professor at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, and an adviser to the former rebels. "It's a very significant shift in the history of Indonesia and a positive sign for the overall stability of the region."
On Aug. 15, the Indonesian government and the rebels of the Free Aceh Movement, known by their Indonesian initials as GAM, signed a historic peace deal in Helsinki, Finland. The rebels were fighting for an independent Acehnese state, separate from a government they viewed as unjust.
The agreement ended a 29-year conflict that had taken 15,000 lives, mostly civilian. The rebels agreed to give up their quest for independence, in exchange for a law that gives Aceh a greater measure of autonomy. Many people, inside Aceh province and out, were skeptical a deal could be reached.
The pact is a bright spot in a year of tragedy. It contrasts with the near-collapse of a similar peace effort in Sri Lanka, where rebels have been fighting the government for decades. The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed 170,000 people in Aceh alone, put the province in the international spotlight, increasing pressure for a deal to allow the relief effort to proceed smoothly. But the accord faces significant challenges.
Under the terms of the deal, the parliament must pass a law allowing any group in Aceh, including the former rebels, to form a political party to contest local and parliamentary elections. Nationalist political parties have voiced opposition to such a law, arguing that it could undermine the unity of the state. Debate on the law begins in January.
Of more immediate concern to Muthalib, 35, is his economic future. He sat on a bamboo platform on a riverbank in this former rebel stronghold glistening with rice paddies but lacking a hospital or midwives.
Muthalib said he was one year into a 32-month prison sentence for treason, for being a GAM member, when the tsunami hit. The following afternoon, taking advantage of the chaos in the prison, he and 27 other prisoners escaped.
He then returned to the jungle, to the battle. "Since the peace deal," he said, "I guess I'm a free man."
But with only an elementary school education and with his longest job experience as a guerrilla, Muthalib is unsure of his prospects. "This is my son," he said, cradling 4-year-old Muhammad Yasin. "For him, I need to find a living."
Syaifuddin, 36, was Muthalib's rebel deputy commander. Sitting on the platform next to Muthalib, he pointed to men and boys shoveling gravel on the riverbank.
"This is it," he said, gesturing with his hand toward a gravel pit. Each man is paid $5 a day. "You can't count this as a job," he said. "This is just for survival, to feed your stomach."
The rebels have set up an Aceh Transition Committee to help their 3,000 soldiers become civilians. About 15,000 to 20,000 additional people, widows and civilian sympathizers of the rebels, also need support, rebel spokesman Munawarliza Zain said. The international community is supporting the peace deal, and agencies such as the International Organization for Migration are helping to develop job training programs, he said.
Both sides acknowledge that building trust is not easy. For instance, in the past, the rebel movement would say that it was laying down its weapons, but in reality it was stockpiling them, said Gen. Bambang Darmono, former Indonesian commander in Aceh and now the government's representative to the Aceh Monitoring Mission, an international body set up to ensure that the peace pact's terms are respected. Today, when their leaders say they have no weapons, he said, "I have to trust."
A monitoring mission led by the European Union has earned the confidence of the rebels, who asked for an extension of its six-month term, which is scheduled to end in March. On Friday, the government announced that the mission might be extended by up to six months, which would allow the mission to monitor the law's passage and local elections scheduled for April 26.
The elections are key to the rebel movement's transition to a civilian movement. Because it is unlikely that the former guerrillas can organize a political party by the April elections, the group is preparing to field independent candidates for governor, vice governor and several district leadership posts.
The former rebels are "going to be facing a lot of money coming out of Jakarta," said Kingsbury, the adviser, referring to candidates from national parties based in the capital. "And GAM's broke."
A sense of injustice, which moved Syaifuddin and Muthalib to join the rebels, lingers.
Muthalib held up his left forearm, disfigured by a welt of scar tissue that he said resulted from a burn from a lighter during a military interrogation. He described how police interrogators forced him and a fellow rebel to run, jump and squat, and then to lick the sweat off each other.
Syaifuddin recalled how soldiers tore down his open-air coffee shop and stole three tons of rice from his barn, using a refrigerated truck to haul it away. He recalled how they painted a big red X and the letters GAM on his house. The letters are still there.
"It is difficult to forget the past," Syaifuddin said. "But we have to forget little by little."
Special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed to this report.
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