Yusril: GAM Finished
Tuesday, 19 December, 2006 | 12:48 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The State Secretary Yusril Ihza Mahendra said the Free Aceh Movement’s (GAM) existence is over. “After the Aceh Governor candidate is elected, automatically the matter is through although the Helsinki agreement does not say explicitly that GAM be disbanded,” he said yesterday (17/12).

According to Yusril, by the Irwandi-Nazar pair being elected in the Aceh Governor-Deputy Governor election that took place on December 11, they have accepted the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI). “In that regional leaders’ election, the Aceh Governor acknowledges NKRI and presented this by participating in the election as an individual candidate, not as a GAM representative candidate,” he said.

GAM Foreign Affairs Minister Zaini Abdullah, rejected the government’s demand that GAM, as an organization, disband itself. The reason is, in addition that it is not included in the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), he viewed that the Decree No.11/2006 on Aceh Governance has not yet fulfilled their demands. He cited local political parties and the government in Aceh. “The election recently was only at the executive level, not legislative,” he said.

From Aceh, the governmental candidate who has the most votes until yesterday, Irwandi, promised to create good governance.

The first thing he will do is improve the governance system. He cited the public service issue.

He promised that he will not abruptly replace old faces in the Aceh government. “We repair the governance system, not replace the people,” he said.

Irwandi also promised to fight the Aceh Governance Decree in line with the people’s aspirations.

Regarding GAM members capacity, there will be cooperation with the existing institution, the Aceh Reintegration Agency (BRA)—an organization which deals with GAM integration with conflict victims post-Helsinki MoU August 15, 2005. This means, he said, GAM members will take posts without bypassing because they are GAM members. The BRA will later carry out this task.

Oktamandjaya, Eko Ari W and Adi Warsidi