Indonesia Offers Land For Peace In Aceh

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, June 22, 2003

Indonesia Offers Land For Peace In Aceh

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As a bid to speed up disintegrating the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a possible short period,the martial law administration in Aceh is offering a piece of land for rebels in exchange for their surrender to the government.

At this weekend, chief of the provincial agriculture and horticulture office Samadi made an announcement at the military headquarters in Banda Aceh, the capital of the country's westernmost province, in which he said that the local government would offer every GAM member who gives up armed struggle and surrender with three hectares of land.

Samadi said the scheme was part of a humanitarian program, one of the four major components of the integrated operation to root out the separatist rebels.

To settle the prolonged trouble in Aceh, the Indonesian government has imposed the martial law on May 19 in the province and carried out an integrated operation there, which includes fourfields -- military operations, humanitarian program, the operationfor law reinforcement and of strengthening governance.

According to the daily Jakarta Post Sunday, apart from the land,the provincial government in Aceh also pledges to provide seeds, fertilizer, farming equipment, farming knowledge and technique plus capital for those willing to surrender to the government. "The state budget will cover the program," Samadi was quoted as saying.

The local government in the oil-rich province has already allocated 50,000 hectares of land for the implementation of the peace-oriented program.

It seems that after one-month military operation, the security authorities has shifted its tactics and focus from its original military options.

Chief of Indonesian Military Force (TNI) Gen. Endriatono Sutarto has stated that the main target of the military operation would no longer be killing as many as rebels as possible, but to persuade and encourage them to accept the Unitary State of Indonesia and surrender to the government.

The latest TNI figures indicate, in the past one-month operations, nearly 230 GAM members were killed during the gunfightings with the government troops, a total of 219 rebels surrendered while 169 others were captured as war prisoners.

But at the same time, the government military force and police have lost 28 men and nearly 70 others have wounded. About 106 civilians were killed by the GAM separatists since May 19, many ofthem were retired military personnel, school teachers, public servants or their family members.

The GAM has been fighting for an independent state since its formation in 1976 in Aceh, where its total population is some fourmillion, mostly Muslims.

The central government in Jakarta under the Soeharto military rule launched a military operation between 1989 and 1998, but failed to quell the rebellion, only claimed over 10,000 lives, mostly civilians.

Bloody war is still going on as the martial law has entered itssecond month. The government plans to eradicate the GAM separatists within six months during the martial law imposition inAceh. By initiating the program of offering land for peace, the government pins a new hope on accelerating the process for restoration of order and peace in the troubled region, and it alsoexpects the peaceful means being more effective and fruitful than the military confrontation.

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