FINLAND: ACEH REBELS SAY INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT HAD AGREED TO LET THEM FORM A POLITICAL PARTY
Record ID:
647305
FINLAND: ACEH REBELS SAY INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT HAD AGREED TO LET THEM FORM A POLITICAL PARTY
- Title: FINLAND: ACEH REBELS SAY INDONESIAN GOVERNMENT HAD AGREED TO LET THEM FORM A POLITICAL PARTY
- Date: 17th July 2005
- Summary: (BN15) HELSINKI, FINLAND (JULY 15, 2005)(REUTERS) 1. SLV EXTERIORS HOTEL 2. MALIK MAHMOOD PRIME MINISTER OF THE EXILED POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF THE FREE ACEH MOVEMENT (GAM) SITTING IN HOTEL 0.18 3. SOUNDBITE (English) MALIK MAHMOOD, PRIME MINISTER OF EXILED POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF THE FREE ACEH MOVEMENT (GAM), SAYING: "The matter of the setting up a politcal party in Aceh, based in Aceh, is, was a sticking point and I think we have overpassed this difficulty." 4. HANDS 5. SOUNDBITE (English) MALIK MAHMOOD, PRIME MINISTER OF THE EXILED POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF THE FREE ACEH MOVEMENT (GAM), SAYING: "About this we agree that the people of Aceh will have the right to establish a political party in one years time." 6. FLAG TIE PIN 7. SOUNDBITE (English) MALIK MAHMOOD, PRIME MINISTER OF THE EXILED POLITICAL LEADERSHIP OF THE FREE ACEH MOVEMENT (GAM), SAYING: "We have bypassed all the stumbling blocks. We have the parliament change or constitution whatever. This is a breakthrough." 1.39 8. SLV EXTERIOR HOTEL WITH BOAT PASSING ON WATERWAY 1.50 (BN16) HELSINKI, FINLAND (REUTERS) 9. NEWS CONFERENCE IN GARDEN; JOURNALISTS INTERVIEWING PARTICIPANTS OF TALKS 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDONESIAN INFORMATION MINISTER SOFYAN DJALIL SAYING: "Hopefully yes. I would day ninety nine percent yes. We are gonna have what you call a draft agreement." 2.15 11. SCU WOMAN AND GIRL LISTENING 2.18 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st August 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: HELSINKI, FINLAND
- Country: Finland
- Reuters ID: LVAAN8HN7GWLWZTKWVAKY2S54GAJ
- Story Text: Aceh rebels say Indonesian government had agreed to
let them form a political party.
Aceh rebels said on Friday the Indonesian government
had agreed to let them form a political party in a year's
time, clearing the way for a truce that could end three
decades of fighting which has killed 12,000 people.
"The people of Aceh will have the right to establish a
political party within one year's time," Malik Mahmood,
prime minister of the exiled political leadership of the
Free Aceh Movement (GAM), told Reuters. "This is a
breakthrough indeed."
Indonesian government negotiators at peace talks in
Helsinki could not immediately be reached for comment, but
Information Minister Sofyan Djalil told Reuters earlier he
was "99 percent" sure a blueprint for a truce could be
agreed upon on Saturday.
Both sides were prompted to resume talks that collapsed
in 2003 by December's tsunami, which laid waste to the
province and left nearly 170,000 Indonesians missing or
dead. Hopes of a deal grew when GAM dropped its historic
demand for full independence.
European Union ceasefire monitors and Indonesian
military were already discussing how to implement a deal on
the ground in Aceh, which lies on the northern tip of the
island of Sumatra, when the Helsinki talks tripped on GAM's
political demands.
The rebels, whose leaders have lived in exile in
Stockholm for nearly 30 years with their ageing monarch,
Prince Hasan di Tiro, wanted assurances they could contest elections in the province of 4 million people as a proper
political party.
Under Indonesian law parties must have a headquarters
in Jakarta and branches in more than half of the 33
provinces. The government was reluctant to change the law
to accommodate GAM, fearing similar demands from other
ethnic or religious groups.
It offered instead to let GAM stand under the umbrella
of 10 existing political parties, though nationalist
legislators objected that this was too big a concession to
GAM.
The rebels initially dismissed this offer as
"undemocratic" and details of the compromise deal were
still unclear late on Friday, but Djalil said any
differences were being ironed out.
"I can say 99 percent 'yes', we are going to have a
draft agreement tomorrow," the Indonesian minister said,
adding there would be no need to change the national
constitution and that only "something in local law needs to
be adjusted".
Violence still flares up in the devoutly Muslim
province, with GAM saying one of its men was killed by
soldiers in a northern village on Friday while seeking
medical assistance.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None