Mediation of Aceh Conflict between Indonesia Government and Separatism Movement (GAM) - In the last few decades, the people of Aceh must experience life in a conflict situation caused by separatist movements to separate themselves from the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia due to the inequality of interest or lack of attention from the government.
In the discussion how the conflict mediation process in Aceh will be discussed by using a research question, How is the mediator positioning himself in the mediation of conflict resolution in Aceh so that it can be solved well?
Aceh which is located at the tip of the island of northern Sumatra NKRI known as the Veranda of Mecca, it never happened a conflict that can not be forgotten by the people of Indonesia, especially the people of Aceh. In this paper, before entering into the mediation stages that occurred in the effort to resolve the conflict, I will mention two historical conflicts of what ever happened in Aceh and the year of its occurrence.
**1. Period of Daud Beureuh** Daud Beureuh and his troops Dalu Islam / Isla troops helped Indonesia to escape from the Dutch colony, with the government guarantee to give political autonomy in the implementation of Islamic law. But the government did not keep the promise that had been agreed. Eventually Daud Beureuh led his army against the Indonesian army as a form of process. The rebellion or conflict began in 1953 and after 1959. The rebellion ended on May 26, 1959 when Aceh was given the status of Special Region with wide autonomy, mainly in the areas of adat, religion, and education.
**2. The Hasan Tiro Period and the Declaration of the Free Aceh Movement** This conflict occurred through rebellion which was manifested as a form of disappointment towards the development that took place in Aceh led by Hasan Tiro. This small group led by Hasan Tiro proclaimed independence in Aceh on December 4, 1976 and proclaimed itself as a GAM The aspirations of GAM separatist groups are largely based on historical backgrounds which state that Aceh never participated in Dutch colonial rule and never became part of the Indonesian nation formed in 1945.
The emergence of this group was responded by the New Order in a repressive way. The result of the conflict between thousands of GAM members and the Indonesian armed forces that dragged on, prompted the New order to send thousands of troops as a tool to quell the separatist GAM rebellion. The attacks by GAM Mediation considered by the political elite in Aceh and Jakarta as a disruption to the ongoing development process.
**Violence during the period of GAM**
During the time of the conflict, there has also been a lot of violence from the conflicts that existed during the period of GAM or even those caused by GAM and the Indonesian army. After CoHa's failed efforts to bring peace to Aceh in 2003, gunfire occurred in almost all parts of Aceh. The frequent shootings are carried out by armed rebels, whether GAM or any other people who reject GAM and also from the Indonesian National Army (TNI). In addition to the shootout that occurred, there are also cases of kidnappings committed by the three parties. GAM kidnappings are carried out to demand ransom, and the ransom will be used to finance their activities. Usually targeted are government employees, including teachers, also targeted. The reason is that usually these people are richer and can make a ransom. Villagers are generally not targeted. Typically, community leaders act in the negotiations of both parties in the abduction. The leader of the community may be the Village Head, as well as the Head of the Mukim (read: the mukim is the smallest form of the village, one village composed of several mukims). The process of negotiation in the kidnapping is usually not easy.
The long-term violence in Aceh then began to recede after the tsunami in Aceh in late 2004. The tsunami that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around Aceh and Nias Island among them caused many GAM soldiers killed. After the tsunami, cases of abduction and violence began to rarely occur almost never. But for the sake of the realization of GAM's free and sovereign goal for Aceh, international aid to Aceh's tsunami victims was later robbed for GAM's own purposes.
The protracted conflict over the different interests of Indonesia-GAM then attracted the international attention to handle it. Pressure that Indonesia can solve it immediately and then presented a third party from the NGOs who want to deal with the crisis in Indonesia.
Indonesia-GAM peace efforts have been implemented several times. The third party as mediator who ever attended the conflict resolution effort was failed. An example is the Henry Dunant Center (HDC). Both NGOs failed to create peace between Indonesia and GAM as conflict parties. The failure of mediation is not caused by mistakes made by HDC itself as a mediator, but the conflicting parties who do not use rational sense in the settlement even more want the existing conflict continues because it is more effective in achieving goals. The differences between the Indonesia-GAM objectives are very contradictory, making the settlement difficult. GAM wants Aceh to be separated from Indonesia and fully sovereign while Indonesia, of course, struggles to defend Aceh as a struggle to maintain the unity of the Unitary Republic of Indonesia.
After the failure of the HDC, other mediation attempts to defuse the conflict between Indonesia and GAM are Crisis Management Initiatives (CMI). CMI began to initiate peace talks in Aceh in January 2005. Informal meetings and dialogues have successfully addressed and brought together the most sensitive issues between Indonesia-GAM. GAM is willing to take back its demands for independence and accept special autonomy. Along with this, conditions in Aceh itself security level began to improve and the government changed the status of civil emergency into a civil order. At its peak, on August 15, 2005, a memorandum of understanding on peace between RI and GAM was adopted in Helsinki.
With the election of an open-minded former soldier, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president in the 2004 elections, the prospects for a peaceful resolution to the Aceh conflict are improving. Shortly after taking office, Kalla was asked to approach GAM leaders on peace to end the conflict. The reality in the context that the 2004 tsunami killed more than 150,000 people, and thousands more were displaced. This destruction is under international scrutiny and is fueling massive humanitarian relief efforts.
The tsunami is also a sufficient blow to combatants on both sides of both GAM and the Indonesian army. In the end it became a catalyst that brought both parties to the peace desk to enter into a peace agreement and facilitate the recovery process in Aceh. In the peace negotiation process of Aceh conflict, representatives of the Government of the Republic of Indonesia and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement meet to negotiate. CMI was chosen as a mediator because its leader was former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari.
The negotiations took place in Helsinki, Finland, at Kőnigstedt Manor between January and August 2005, resulting in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) and the government of the Republic of Indonesia. This Agreement consists of six subjects with regard to Government Implementation in Aceh, Law on Governance in Aceh, Political Participation, Economics, Laws, Human Rights, Amnesty and Reintegration into the Community, Security Arrangements, Forming of Monitoring Mission Aceh, and Dispute Settlement.
MCI as a mediator is able to position himself well because he is from a neutral party from an NGO, and has no political interest whatsoever so that he is able to be neutral. After the first round, when Ahtisaari sensed that a positive result was achieved he approached the EU, which agreed to fund the remainder of the talks. The EU also plays a key role in implementing the MoU by establishing the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) in cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The inclusion of ASEAN representatives in the AMM was considered to appease members of the Indonesian government who insist AMM has more local components. Indonesia's experience with the United Nations in Timor-Leste makes it almost impossible to have direct UN involvement in the talks or implementation process. [7] However, one Indonesian negotiatior warned that the government is also afraid that failure to reach an agreement will undermine further international aid is crucial to tsunami relief efforts.
The achievement of negotiations between RI-GAM from the first round to the fifth round, and the start of the Helsinki MoU draft at the fifth round of negotiations, is a very important and fundamental achievement for the resolution of the Aceh conflict. However, that ddi not mean the dynamics of the negotiations went smoothly. Negotiations in the first and second rounds were very critical, especially in the second round, because there was no dead lock, no common ground, due to the different positions of both parties, CMI's role in finding alternatives to the negotiation formula was a critical success factor in the negotiations between RIGAM.
However, Martti's expertise and supporters at CMI. Martti wanted to mediate negotiations on the condition that the GoI really wanted to resolve the issue of GAM separatism thoroughly. Another reason, because Martti as a negotiator is the reputation of this character in humanitarian issues, so it can be a bridge to create trust between the two sides. From the design of the negotiations, in Helsinki can encourage conflict resolution permanently, not cease fire or ceasefire.
