Govt told to contain social tensions, learn from the past

The Jakarta Post ,  Cikarang, West Java   |  Fri, 11/13/2009 2:10 PM  |  National

With conflicts raging in several Indonesian regions, International Crisis Group director Sidney Jones has urged the government to take measures to contain social tensions by learning from past experience.

Jones said Thursday that Indonesians could learn lessons from the current conditions in Aceh after armed conflict between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group and the government was resolved through an agreement signed in Helsinki, Finland, in 2005.

She said that although there was a permanent peace settlement for Aceh, people in the area were now facing many problems that related to the agreement and the way it was enforced.

"These will be ongoing problems for Aceh," she said in a lecture at President University in Cikarang, West Java.

Jones said that other countries in Southeast Asia should also learn from this experience, although the conflict in Aceh and how it had been resolved might not provide an ideal model to be used in other conflict areas due to different conditions prevailing in each country.

According to the American researcher, Aceh had problems in the reintegration programs to bring former GAM combatants back into society.

"It has never been clear exactly what the goals of the reintegration programs were," she said.

Jones said there was a lot of money allocated for the reintegration programs.

"A lot of the money went through and was distributed by the former commanders of GAM. There weren't any procedures to ensure that it was distributed fairly," she said.

"And some of them did distribute it to the people who fought but many suddenly had new cars and houses and people began to question how that money was being used.

"It's absolutely critical in post-conflict situations that the reintegration programs and money is handled very clearly and accountably."

Jones said another problem was the fact that a number of former GAM combatants were now holding public office in the Aceh administration, but she said they did not know how to govern.

In the aftermath of decades of separatist conflict, Acehnese are now also facing security problems.

"People feel very good that there is no longer any fighting between the government and the guerillas, but there are a huge amount of crimes, some of them conducted by former GAM members that still have access to guns," she said.

It was important to give people a sense that they are safe, Jones said.

"You have to give people a sense that they are better off and more secure in peace than they were with conflict," she said.

"So it's critical to have some sense of law and order."

She emphasized the importance of having a good, responsive and clean police force.

"This is particularly the case when the police were seen as players *in the conflict*," Jones said.

"In Aceh, we had the Brimob *the police's elite Mobile Brigade* as one of the forces fighting GAM, so in order to overcome the perception of the police as enemies, we have to have reform of the police force."

Jones did not elaborate on what reforms were needed while acknowledging reforming the police was one of the hardest things to do.

In order to avoid future conflicts, the government must also settle many land disputes in the country.

"In every single conflict, no matter whether it is an ethnic or religious conflict. there are always disputes over land," Jones said.

She urged the government to establish a body for resolving land disputes.

"You have to have someway of figuring out who owns the land. And we don't have an effective body to do that in Aceh or in Indonesia," she said.

Jones also felt that there was not much chance of another conflict in Aceh erupting between the government and the former guerilla group.

"But problems in Aceh still need to be addressed," she said. (adh)

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