Like anything newborn, peace deals start life fragile and vulnerable. However ardently peace may have been wished for in times of bloodshed and destruction, the moment it arrives it is greeted with fear and suspicion. Thus the people of the Indonesian province of Aceh are saluting the deal inked yesterday between Acehnese rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian government meeting in Finland with caution. Hopes are the more guarded because a similar deal three years ago fell apart after five months.
This time however it seems that the outcome may be different. Twenty-nine years of often-bitter insurgency may at last be coming to an end. The people of Aceh, harking back to proud 18 century past when they had been a dominant commercial and military power, had sought independence from the rest of Indonesia. It was their argument that Aceh had never actually been annexed by the Dutch colonialists and should therefore not have been included in the independence deal the Dutch cut with President Sukarno to end their occupation. However, successive governments in Jakarta, aware of the complex ethnic mix of the whole of their country, preferred to clamp down rather than negotiate, which they saw as a sign of weakness, likely to encourage rather than dampen the revolt. Matters have been further complicated by the existence of onshore natural gas and offshore oil reserves within the province.
Now Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has put his personal authority behind an agreement designed to find a peaceful political solution to the conflict. There is much that could yet go wrong. The government believes that the law must be changed to allow the separate political representation they have conceded to the Acehnese - and some in Jakarta may oppose this. In addition there are still elements in Indonesia’s powerful armed forces that believe the revolt can still be broken militarily.
It is of course the tragedy of the tsunami that has made this accord possible. The resolute action of the Jakarta authorities in the wake of December’s catastrophe caused the people of Aceh to reconsider their relations with them. By and large the reaction of all Indonesians to the disaster that had befallen the northern tip of Sumatra was fulsome and generous. An uneasy truce was agreed between GAM rebels and government troops.
At a time of such overwhelming tragedy, differences however deeply held, were put aside in a decent human response to the plight of the survivors and the recovery of the dead. As a result, when Aceh began the long road to recovery, it was not “conflict as usual” but rather both sides were prepared to re-explore the options for peace. The Helsinki peace deal still faces many dangers but the longer it holds, the greater will be the rebuilding of trust and confidence on both sides.
