Spurred by the tsunami disaster, members of the Indonesian government and the Aceh rebel movement discussed relief operations in the disaster-hit area in talks aimed at ending a 30-year conflict in the breakaway region.
The two sides met face-to-face Friday at a secluded manor house north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, in a meeting convened by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
"The meeting was very constructive and was carried out in a positive spirit," said Pauliina Arola, executive director of the president's office. "They discussed the humanitarian crisis. It was the most urgent issue."
Arola said the closed-door talks will continue during the next few days, but declined to give details.
A spokesman for Aceh rebel leaders said he was cautiously optimistic after Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono offered them concessions in return for a ceasefire.
"It sounds positive from our point of view," Bakhtiar Abdullah, a spokesman from the Free Aceh Movement, locally known as GAM, said on arrival in Helsinki on Thursday. "But we'll have to see how far we can take the talks."
Abdullah said the five-member GAM delegation, led by the self-exiled government's president, Malik Mahmoud, will focus on making it safe for relief workers to help rebuild Aceh in the wake of the tsunami.
"That's the most important part of the negotiations," he said.
Arola said Ahtisaari's office had been "keenly following the situation in Indonesia" for about a year before the tsunami disaster and had been negotiating to bring the two parties together.
"There was interest also from our side to follow up the situation ... already before the humanitarian catastrophe," Arola said in an interview with reporters. "I think the tsunami has brought a certain sense of urgency to the situation."
Ahtisaari, 67, was Finland's president from 1994-2000 and has held senior UN posts including commissioner for Namibia and undersecretary-general for management and administration. He was special adviser to the UN secretary-general on the former Yugoslavia in 1993.
In Jakarta, Yudhoyono said the government has offered rebel leaders a chance to "terminate the conflict peacefully, of course in the framework of the unity of the Republic of Indonesia and by adopting the special autonomy status."
The warring sides are meeting to bring about a formal ceasefire. Indonesia wants the talks to be followed by more substantive negotiations on the status of Aceh.
GAM has been fighting since 1976 for independence for the province of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island. A previous truce collapsed in 2003 when the Indonesian military launched a new offensive against the insurgents.
At the time, Indonesia's Parliament approved a special autonomy package for the resource-rich province which would give its people self-government while keeping them within Indonesia, but the measure was never implemented because of the fighting.
School bullies in Singapore are to face caning under new guidelines, but the education minister on Tuesday said it would be meted out only as a last resort with strict safeguards. Human rights groups regularly criticize Singapore for the use of corporal punishment, which remains part of the school and criminal justice systems, but authorities have defended it as a deterrent to crime and serious misconduct. Caning was discussed in the parliament after legislators asked how it would be used in relation to bullying in schools. The debate followed stricter guidelines on serious student misconduct, including bullying, unveiled by the Singaporean Ministry of
A MESSAGE: Japan’s participation in the Balikatan drills is a clear deterrence signal to China not to attack Taiwan while the US is busy in the Middle East, an analyst said The Japan Self-Defense Forces yesterday fired a Type 88 anti-ship missile during a joint maritime exercise with US, Australian and Philippine forces, hitting a decommissioned Philippine Navy ship in waters facing the disputed South China Sea, in drills that underscore Tokyo’s rising willingness to project military power on China’s doorstep. The drill took place as Manila and Tokyo began talks on a potential defense equipment transfer, made possible by Japan’s decision to scrap restrictions on military exports. The discussions include the possible early transfer of Abukuma-class destroyers and TC-90 aircraft to the Philippines, Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. Philippine Secretary of
‘GROSS NEGLIGENCE?’ Despite a spleen typically being significantly smaller than a liver, the surgeon said he believed Bryan’s spleen was ‘double the size of what is normal’ A Florida surgeon who is facing criminal charges after allegedly removing a patient’s liver instead of his spleen has said he is “forever traumatized” by that person’s death. In a deposition from November last year that was recently obtained by NBC, 44-year-old Thomas Shaknovsky described the death of 70-year-old William Bryan as an “incredibly unfortunate event that I regret deeply.” Bryan died after the botched surgery; and last month, a grand jury in Tallahassee indicted Shaknovsky on a charge of manslaughter. “I’m forever traumatized by it and hurt by it,” Shaknovsky added, also saying that wrong-site surgeries can happen “during
A South Korean judge who last week more than doubled former South Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee’s prison sentence was found dead yesterday, police said. Shin Jong-o was found unconscious at about 1am at the Seoul High Court building, an investigator at the Seocho District Police Station in Seoul said. Shin was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, he said. “There is no sign of foul play in the death,” the investigator added. Local media reported that Shin had left a suicide note, but the investigator said there was none. On Tuesday last week, Shin presided over 53-year-old Kim’s appeal trial, finding her guilty
RSS