National

Government Discusses Implementation of Peace Agreement
Saturday, 20 August, 2005 | 20:27 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta:: Indonesian Minister for Communication and Information Sofyan Djalil has stated the government’s seriousness in implementing the Helsinki peace agreement in order to end the 30-year conflict in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD).

A special coordination meeting was held to discuss the implementation of the peace agreement on Friday (19/08) at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jakarta.

“The Indonesian government is extremely serious as regards applying and implementing the agreement,” stated Djalil on Friday (19/08).

Djalil said that the first stage to be carried out by the government will be amnesty for detainees of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

According to the Minister for Communication and Information, the government has set the end of this month as the deadline for the amnesty to be implemented.

Following this, the implementation of the peace agreement points shall be carried out on a inter-ministerial basis while the Aceh Governance Law is being discussed.

To ward off many people’s doubts over the government’s commitment to the implementation of the peace agreement, Djalil said that he would conduct an intensive socialization program.

A negotiating team, he said, would visit Aceh in the near future to socialize the contents of the peace agreement to members of the general public.
(Ahmad Fikri-Tempo News Room)