Peace Deal to Give Aceh Autonomy

The Indonesian province of Aceh is to be offered wide-ranging autonomy in a law expected to be passed tomorrow, consolidating an 11-month peace process.

The law gives the province on the northern tip of Sumatra control over all areas of government except external defence, foreign relations and fiscal policy. It allows Aceh to retain 70% of its significant natural resources, allows the Acehnese to field independent candidates in elections for provincial governor and district chiefs and to establish local political parties to run in future elections.

Independent candidates and local parties are banned in the rest of Indonesia. Aceh's election is likely to be held in November.

No one is entirely happy with the legislation, but objections are not expected to scupper the deal signed last August that ended 29 years of fighting between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gam), in which some 12,000 people have died.

"At the moment we're still not satisfied with the [legislation] that's going to be passed because it seems it has not been accommodative enough of the Acehnese people's aspirations," Gam spokesman Bachtiar Abdullah told the Guardian today. "But we believe we should be able to resolve the problems because there are mechanisms available."

Gam's two main reservations are Jakarta's insistence that natural resources revenues are collected by central government then returned to Aceh, and that the law has to comply with existing Indonesian legislation.

"If that's the case this new law will be meaningless," Mr Bachtiar said. "It means Jakarta will retain control."

Civil society groups are concerned over the lack of rights for women and the exclusion of a retroactivity clause in the planned human rights tribunal. Both sides have been accused of many abuses during the fighting that look likely to go unpunished.

Pieter Feith, the head of the European Union-led mission monitoring and mediating the peace process, told the Guardian: "The situation is quite good but there are clouds on the horizon that we need to be aware of. If there's a sense that the new law does not comply with the spirit of the memorandum of understanding [between Gam and Jakarta] then it could lead to serious disappointment."

A recent upsurge in criminality after months of peace at least four people have been killed in Aceh in the last week is being attributed to former Gam fighters not yet receiving the financial compensation they were promised for surrendering their weapons.

Like many Acehnese, most Gam fighters are struggling to rebuild their lives after the tsunami in December 2004 that devastated most of the province's coastal communities, killing at least 130,000 people. The tragedy did, however, prove a major catalyst for the peace process.