a glimpse of the history of the Aceh conflict

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is a separatist organization that has been established in Aceh since 1976. The goal of GAM is to get Aceh out of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia and to create its own unitary state under the name of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. The Free Aceh Movement is also known as Aceh Sumatera National Liberation Front (ASNLF).

Initially, GAM was a limited-proclaimed organization. The GAM Declaration echoed by Hasan Tiro was secretly disebuah a second camp located on Cokan hill, inland Tiro subdistrict, Pidie. A year later, the text was disseminated in a three-language version; English Indonesia, and Aceh. The spread of the text of the proclamation of GAM, was revealed when one of its members was arrested by the police due to the forgery of the election form in 1977. Since then, the New Order government learned about the underground movement in Aceh.

Initially, the movement consisted of a group of intellectuals who were disappointed in the development model in Aceh. This is related to governance under the Javanese people. This intellectual group assumes that there has been a Javanese colonialization of society and natural resources in Aceh. To gain support from the community, youth and religious leaders in Aceh, Hasan Tiro reproduces the idea of ​​Javanese anti-colonialization. Hasan Tiro's ideas grew steadily after the New Order government explored natural gas and petroleum resources in North Aceh since the early 1970s.

Another cause of the GAM separatist movement in Aceh was reinforced by the support that came from Darul Islam (DI) leaders in Aceh that had not been resolved completely in the old order era. DI / TII figures who failed to rebel in Aceh, felt that their support for GAM would help Aceh gain its own independence.

Helsinki negotiations

The idea of ​​resolving conflicts with the new peace path came when Indonesia was under President Yudhoyono. From the end of January to July 2005, SBY-JK began to conduct four rounds of informal talks with GAM to hold talks as a peaceful means of resolving separatism in Aceh. This informal discussion was facilitated by the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), an institution headed by a former Finnish executive, Martti Ahtisaari. Jusuf Kalla calls the current path as a new approach, as Kalla has consistent and continuous supervision to resolve the Aceh conflict with the path of peace.2

The first step to approach the path of peace, is to bring together the two parties in dispute. And to be able to make GAM willing to dialogue with the Indonesian side, the need for a sense of trust with each other. This sense of confidence is quite difficult to obtain, making this first round of informal meetings to be a failure. Therefore, it is necessary for a third party that can be trusted by both parties as mediator. And for his third party, Indonesia chose Martti Ahtisaari. The reason for choosing Ahtisaari is; firstly, for almost a year, Jusuf Kalla has communicated by telephone with Ahtisaari to discuss the conflict in Aceh.

Secondly, because Martti Ahtisaari has an agreement with RI, that in solving the conflict in Aceh, the concept that might be used is the concept of special autonomy. Third, because Martti's reputation as a former president is very good. And Fourthly, it is because the presence of GAM in Sweden is expected to be met and lobbied by Martti, thereby establishing GAM's confidence in the negotiator.

In the Helsinki talks there are five rounds. In the first and second rounds, the results are unsatisfactory, since both sides are critical, especially in the second round, due to dead locks, or the absence of common ground, due to the position of the two different sides. However, the role of CMI in finding alternatives to the formulation of negotiations has been a critical success factor in the negotiations between RI-GAM. the Helsinki talks are very different from previous GAM-GAM negotiations. Martti has not only succeeded in breaking the second track of diplomacy, especially with GAM and Jusuf Kalla, but Martti has the ability to penetrate first track Diplomacy at the European Union level as well as the United Nations and the United States. Finally, the Helsinki negotiations were signed by both parties on 15 August 2005. The Helsinki talks were a symbol of the end of the separatist movement in Aceh.