JP/Hotli Simanjuntak

“All the parties demonstrated a strong desire to find a solution to the problems of the Acehnese people, and they contributed to the process of creating reconciliation in Aceh,” the Finnish businessman and researcher says. “Just like a football team that wants victory by working together.”

Members of that “football team” included the Indonesian government, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Army (TNI) and the Indonesian people. And although the name most often associated with the peace process is that of former president of Finland and Nobel Peace Price laureate Martti Ahtisaari, the contribution of this other Finn is just as appreciated by those in the know.

But there are not many in the know: Christensen played his very important role behind the scenes.

Thanks to his efforts in linking Ahtisaari in Sweden with the government and GAM, parties that had been fighting for more or less three decades finally sat down at one table to negotiate
Juha, now 50, arrived in Indonesia in 1985 as a researcher and became a guest lecturer at Hasanuddin University. For five years after his arrival, he accompanied his wife, Liisa Christensen, in researching language in the capital of South Sulawesi.

Juha, who headed up a healthcare technology company, became involved in the Aceh peace process through his close personal relationship with Farid Husain, a director general in the Health Ministry. He had long been interested in international and humanitarian affairs, and believed that his multidisciplinary academic education and background, combined with his knowledge of the Indonesian culture, language and character, would prove an asset during the peace process.

“I also had an interest in helping create international stability so that every nation can focus on other important issues, such as controlling new diseases, environmental destruction and the energy shortages that are starting to affect the world,” he says.

Juha began researching the issues in Aceh in mid-2000. When then Indonesian ambassador to Finland Fauzie Gani invited him to an art exhibition in Palembang, he decided to visit Aceh too.

“At that time I asked the permission of Fauzi Gani to visit Aceh. He agreed immediately without asking why I wanted to go to Aceh,” says Juha, who arrived in the province in October 2002.

“I immediately fell in love with Aceh when I walked on Ule Lhue beach,” he says. “I saw the hills, the beach, a clean city and a friendly society. I even liked the food very much.”

Eight months later, Juha met the GAM officials in Sweden.

“From that first meeting I felt optimistic and accepted by them, because they wanted to listen to me, although they were a little hesitant,” he says. “Through a PowerPoint presentation that ran for 90 minutes I tried to convince them that peace in Aceh could be reached.”

From there, Juha and the GAM officials in Sweden started to hold intensive meetings about achieving peace in Aceh. As the Indonesian government was also looking into ways to create peace, Juha got additional information from his contacts in the government.

“I saw that there were obstacles in the peace process, but I also saw there was hope and the wish to
create peace in Aceh,” he says.

“The process of preparing a dialogue started long before the tsunami hit Aceh [in December 2004],” he added. “In the end, a lot of people were convinced peace in Aceh was achieved because of the tsunami.”

The Indonesian government had already agreed to hold discussions with GAM officials and had appointed Hamid Awaludin as the head of the delegation. And then GAM leaders told Juha they wanted to hold discussions too.

From the beginning, Juha had been looking for the right person to take leadership and mediate the peace process — someone both the government and GAM could accept. His search led him to Ahtisaari.

“I felt that because the leader of GAM lived in Europe, the mediator should come from that region,” Juha says. “Former president Ahtisaari was suitable … and he agreed to become the mediator.”

On Dec. 24, 2004, two days before the tsunami, Juha sent a confirmatory letter and an invitation to the two parties to hold the first meeting in Helsinki.

During the following months, a series of meetings were held. The negotiations resulted in the parties signing a memorandum of understanding in August 2005.

Ahtisaari then appointed Juha as a special adviser to the head of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) in Aceh. Yet after the AMM had finished its work, Juha didn’t leave the province.

He continued to monitor the peace through the Interpeace Institution, an international NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland. One of the NGO’s duties was monitoring the implementation of the Aceh Government Law (UUPA 11/2006), a special law for the province.

Juha praised the Indonesian government’s speed in making UUPA 11/2006 as “extraordinary”.

“In my country, the minimum period for [the People’s Representative Council] is two meetings before a law like this could become legal,” Juha says for comparison. “So there is no reason whatever people to be negative in believing the implementation of the UUPA has been too slow.”

Juha is still in Aceh, where he is general manager of PACTA (Peace Architecture and Conflict Transformation Alliance), which focuses on the transformation of conflict into peace.

“I am still focused on monitoring the Aceh peace process and will do so for at least the next five years,” he says, adding the peace process is progressing well and is a good example for other countries in conflict.

“If I can maintain my health, and if God lets me, my goal is to keep dedicating my life and to remain committed to peace for as long as I can, maybe another 30 years,” he says.

“Because right now, all my experience and education can be used to help the lives of many people, and I like that.”

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