home > by publication type > backgrounder > INDONESIA: The Aceh Peace Agreement
Email
| Author: | Esther Pan |
|---|
Updated on September 15, 2005
Rebels from the Islamist Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, or GAM), which has fought for independence from Jakarta for nearly 30 years, began turning in their weapons to international monitors September 15, an important first step toward peace in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province after a nearly 30-year civil war. GAM members will hand in a total of 840 weapons in four stages over the next three months as Jakarta withdraws thousands of soldiers and police officers. Half the current number of soldiers and police will be withdrawn by the end of the year, leaving 14,700 soldiers and 9,100 police in Aceh. The moves are outlined in a peace treaty signed by representatives of the Indonesian government and GAM in Helsinki August 15.
GAM members handed in dozens of weapons, including rifles, handguns, grenade launchers, and shoulder-fired missile launchers. There was some controversy over which weapons counted; some government representatives said the weapons must be foreign-made and in working order—like the Chinese-manufactured AK-47s seized from rebels in almost-weekly military raids during 2004—while GAM members said any weapons, including homemade ones, should count. Pieter Feith, the Dutch diplomat heading the 220-member Aceh Monitoring Mission, said any working weapons with a steel chamber and a steel barrel would count toward the total.
GAM has been fighting for independence in the western Indonesian province since 1976. Many previous attempts to make peace, including the latest in 2003, failed as hostilities flared between Jakarta—which has been determined to hold onto resource-rich Aceh—and the rebels. Decades of violence left over 15,000 people dead and thousands more displaced. But after the December 26, 2004, underground earthquake and tsunami devastated the Aceh province—killing some 170,000 residents, leaving 500,000 homeless, and causing $4.5 billion worth of damage—b oth sides in the conflict returned to the negotiating table with new resolve to end the longstanding dispute.
The Helsinki peace deal strengthens the autonomy granted to Aceh in a 2001 agreement with the government and gives the province several special rights and privileges. The agreement also:
Aceh was an independent sultanate until the twentieth century, having fought off repeated Dutch attempts to colonize it along with the rest of Indonesia. The Dutch finally won control of the province in 1904. Aceh was briefly occupied by Japan after World War II, then was claimed by the newly independent state of Indonesia. However, the Acehnese—who historically traded with fellow Muslims from India, the Arabian peninsula, and the Ottoman empire—fought all their colonial overseers. Their cultural history—which includes a more conservative form of Islam than in other parts of Indonesia—has led the Acehnese to consider themselves distinct from the Javanese, who form the majority of Indonesians. A form of sharia (traditional Islamic law) has been practiced in Aceh since 2003, in contrast to the secular law practiced in the rest of the nation.
In December 2002, the two sides signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA). But CoHa collapsed five months after it was signed over the issue of Aceh’s autonomy. The Indonesian government responded by declaring a state of emergency and launching a massive military campaign that severely weakened GAM. Human Rights Watch estimates that more than 100,000 people were displaced and many thousands murdered in that time. The organization accused the Indonesian government of torturing GAM prisoners and committing widespread human-rights violations in its report, Aceh at War: Torture, Ill-Treatment, and Unfair Trials.
Indonesian Vice President Kalla, with strong support from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, took a personal role in the negotiation process and is committed to making the agreement stick, experts say. But the difficulties of ending a 30-year-old conflict should not be underestimated, warns an International Crisis Group report, Aceh: A New Chance for Peace.
It is one of Indonesia’s poorest provinces, with a 27 percent unemployment rate among its 4 million people. The inflation rate is 17 percent, compared to about 7 percent inflation in other parts of the country, according to the World Bank. Much of the inflation is a result of the massive influx of aid workers and money for post-tsunami reconstruction, which pushed up costs for housing, food, and transportation. Aceh provides almost a quarter of Indonesia’s total oil and gas output, and oil and gas production make up nearly half of the province’s revenues. However, the region’s known oil reserves are predicted to run out in 2011, experts say. Despite its mineral wealth, poverty persists in the province, leading some Acehnese nationalists to accuse Jakarta of exploiting the region.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
Explore international efforts to curb nuclear proliferation with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1.212.434.9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
In War of Necessity, War of Choice, Richard N. Haass contrasts the decisions that shaped the conduct of two wars between the United States and Iraq involving the two presidents Bush and Saddam Hussein, and writes an authoritative, personal account of how U.S. foreign policy is made, what it should seek, and how it should be pursued.
In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba’s unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.
As Ray Takeyh shows in Guardians of the Revolution, behind the famous personalities and extremist slogans of Iran is a nation that is far more pragmatic—and complex—than many in the West have been led to believe.
Complete list of CFR Books
This report finds that nuclear weapons will remain a fundamental element of U.S. national security in the near term, and makes recommendations on how to ensure the safety, security, and reliability of the U.S. deterrent nuclear force, prevent nuclear terrorism, and strengthen the nuclear nonproliferation regime.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR
Complete list of Task Force reports
The Canadian oil sands present an important challenge to policymakers: they promise energy security benefits but present climate change problems. Michael A. Levi assesses the energy security and climate change effects of the oil sands and makes recommendations for U.S. policymakers within the context of broader bilateral relations with Canada.
This report explores an important element of the maritime policy regime: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Author Scott G. Borgerson examines the international negotiations that led to the convention, the history of debates in the United States over whether to join it, and the strategic importance of the oceans for U.S. foreign policy today.
Complete list of Council Special Reports
To request permission to reprint or reuse CFR material, please fill out this permissions request form (PDF), referring to the instructions on page 1.
Copyright 2009 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.