Indonesia warned over fragile Aceh peace
The fragile peace in Indonesia's Aceh province could unravel as tensions mount ahead of landmark elections, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari warned yesterday.
The former Finnish president who helped negotiate the 2005 Helsinki agreement that ended Aceh's 30-year separatist conflict said crucial elements of the pact had still not been implemented.
He called for foreign monitors to observe the April 9 parliamentary elections amid rising political and criminal violence targeting politicians in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
"Much work remains to be done in developing a national system that protects, sustains and improves the quality of life in Aceh," he told about 200 delegates at the closing of a regional conference on conflict resolution late Tuesday.
"There are key challenges to be addressed if peace is to endure," he added, citing a World Bank study showing that countries that have emerged from civil war have a 50 percent chance of relapsing into conflict after five years.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, he said justice was the cornerstone of peace and the province needed a human rights court and a truth and reconciliation commission as required under the Helsinki agreement.
Ahtisaari, who met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Jakarta on Monday, also said parties contending the elections must show "extreme restraint" in the face of provocations and intimidation.
"There is a need to strengthen the security environment and prevent localised conflicts or crimes from spreading or escalating," he told the conference, pointing to the local police.
The polls are the first direct elections for local parliament since the historic peace deal was signed between Free Aceh Movement separatist guerrillas and Jakarta, ending a conflict that had claimed some 15,000 lives since 1974.
The deal was struck in the shocking aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed about 170,000 people in Aceh.
But as the polls approach local police have been powerless to stop rising violence including kidnappings, murders, shootings and grenade attacks on party offices and politicians' homes.
Ahtisaari, 71, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for spending more than 30 years helping to end conflicts in troublespots around the world, including in Kosovo, Namibia and Indonesia.
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