FREE ACHEH MOVEMENT IN EUROPE
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"GENEVA ACCORD" - MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

 

The so called Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reportedly to be signed by GAM Minister of Health, Zaini Abdullah, and Indonesian Ambassador to Switzerland, Hasan Wirayuda, in Geneva next week will be seen by many as a first step to resolve the bloody conflict in Acheh through a dialogue. As usual, when the word “Geneva” is mentioned as the venue of the meeting, “a miracle is going to happen”, and the world's media hail the event as a major achievement for President Abdurrahman Wahid - so far. And it, unfortunately, is true!

The Free Acheh Movement in Europe (MB GAM Eropa), which is committed to dialogue as the best way to resolve the decades conflict between Acheh and Jakarta, sees the "Geneva event" as an Indonesian propaganda that will merely be used to accommodate its political and economic interests. President Abdurrahman Wahid who has adopted the philosophy of 'let-it-be'-ism (biarinisme) in handling the Acheh issues, has already won the first round of the “Geneva accord” without having to lift a finger. The other winner is Hasballah Saad, Indonesian Human rights Minister, who has been very busy commenting to the press about this achievement. In his first comment, he unashamedly said that the ongoing “connectivity Court” of the massacre of Teungku Bantaqiah and his followers, which has been widely denounced in Acheh, is also “part of the Geneva agreement:” There is no reason not to believe that the historic event in Geneva is regarded by most Achehnese as a kind of painkillers that would temporarily linger their long sufferings and break the impasse over this protracted armed conflict. But at this critical moment, when the Indonesian economy is on the brink of total collapse, when multinational companies in Acheh are halting its operations and when the hopes to solve the Acheh problems are out of sight, Indonesia desperately needs a lifeline in order to survive as a country - and that lifeline is non other than that “peace accord”. Thanks to Mr Malik Mahmud and Zaini Abdullah for bailing Indonesia out of bankruptcy and collapse.

Indonesia urgently needs something “black on white” as a guarantor to show the international community, especially the west and the USA, that it is evidently committed to non-violence in dealing with the troubled Acheh. By so doing, International pressures on past military abuses in Acheh could be eased or rather forgotten, and fearful foreign investments could be attracted again to the area. Regardless of what the Geneva agreement will contain, the winners and the losers are already there.

At the time of the Geneva event is on the headlines of every major newspaper world over, the violence has been on the increase instead of diminishing. And Abdurrahman Wahid along with some Government Ministers have been quick to comment that the recent violence prevalent in Acheh has been the work of a third party – not by its armed forces. The meaning is, if the Geneva agreement can not be lived up later (certainly it cannot be), the President of Indonesia has already a scapegoat at his disposal to be blamed. While his tens of thousands of battle-harden troops who have been doing most of the dirty job in the field are not to be touched.

By now, three days before the signing of the “cease fire”, Abdurrahman Wahid has white-washed his bloody hands in Acheh, and his marauding soldiers who have been responsible for all kinds of atrocities – abductions, rapes and massacres - appear now as innocent and, all of sudden, being portrayed by local media as “good guys”. Worse still, even the armed forces of the Free Acheh Movement have been eulogised by some Indonesian ministers as “good guys” and ask them to cooperate with TNI to search for provocateurs or Mr “unknown”. This is not the first time Indonesia has used this kind of deplorable tactics to conjure the people of Acheh to its subordination.

As for ASNLF delegation, led by Mr Malik Mahmud, being able to come to Geneva and to sit down and discuss the future of Acheh with an Indonesian Ambassador is a major “diplomatic breakthrough”. At least they can show to the people of Acheh back home that there is something going on here in Europe, but without realising that this temporary “cease fire” will certainly be used at the maximum by Indonesia and its henchmen in Banda Acheh as a gimmick to buy time to pursue it own agenda: A wide autonomy for Acheh (Negara Aceh Darussalam). While the hapless people of Acheh can only have hope and illusion to live in peace and freedom. However, the fact remains that whoever signs the agreement will one day be remembered by the people of Acheh as either a traitor or a hero.

The Free Acheh Movement in Europe once again emphasises that it will unreservedly support any efforts to bring the Acheh violence to a end and to resolve the Acheh issues democratically and peacefully in accordance with the genuine aspirations of the people of Acheh. But the would be “Geneva agreement” occurs at an improbable time and at impetuous momentum.

Liberation can only be achieved by those whose minds are already liberated!

Stockholm, 8 May 2000

M. Yusuf Daud
Secretary-general
Email: yusuf.daud@telia.com
Tel: 0739756532