Sarah Gyorog Letter- thoughts on the peace process in Aceh

Hello Everyone!

Just wanted to share my thoughts on the peace process in Aceh with you.

Watching and experiencing the peace process in Aceh has been like walking into a case study from graduate school (thanks UMB!). From the first day we celebrated the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on August 15 through a security assessment trip that ended a few days ago, it has been a ride to remember. The first days after the signing people were split, many said the time had come and they thought it would hold, but most said at best they were “cautiously optimistic”. This became a sort of catchphrase and people were heard saying it all over Aceh, from becak drivers to political analysts. The meaning of this phrase became that people felt they have been here before. The pain of the COHA failure in 2002-2003 was still clear in people’! s minds and people remembered why it failed, and more importantly remembered the military emergency that followed its failure. They remembered their family and friends and their own imprisonment and harassment. People in Aceh know what it feels like not to be free.

Later, as the weeks went by it seemed that the Acehnese began to get used to the idea of peace. As I went out at night around town on the team motorbike, I heard loud music coming from a warung for the first time since being in Aceh. At 10pm, people were still out drinking kopi Aceh or out eating at a warung. I was worried that this was a governmental peace, that it would be hard for organizations like PBI to help make this a peoples peace. But then the signs were flapping in the breeze, literally. Small warungs, restaurants, organizations, schools, government offices had all made signs with statements supporting the peace process and the MoU. They didn’t nee! d the international community to ask them to grasp onto the peace in Aceh, they would make sure it became theirs. Granted, this was all in Banda Aceh and in many villages lots of people don’t know about the peace process, at least not in detail and they certainly didn’t feel ownership in those first weeks.

In that first month, as we all began to read and understand the MoU and the negotiation process, it became clear that the biggest weakness was the lack of involvement of the local population. Then local organizations started their own monitoring and socialization teams that went far into villages to monitor the human rights situation and to socialize the MoU and the peace process in general. These teams were made up of local folks, people from all different walks of life volunteering their time to work for peace. Again, we saw the power of the people to own the peace. People were stopping by the PBI house saying, how! can we support this process? We held a discussion at our house regarding the meaning of peace and the living room was packed with local actors sitting on the floor flushing out the meanings of peace and conflict.

And we approached the two month anniversary GAM fighters were beginning to leave the mountains and return to their homes and accused GAM members were given amnesty and released from prison. Not only did these things happen but they happened incredibly smoothly. Everyone held up their sides of the bargain. However, nobody gave anything too quickly or without fanfare and recognition. At every turn, each interested party looked smart, strategic and never lost face. Local communities held ceremonies to welcome fighters back and to forgive them for past abuses. GAM began the process of turning in their weapons, arriving at the designated point piled into the backs of trucks, guns in tow, cheering and handed over th! eir guns to be chopped up in front of them by experts from the Aceh Monitoring Mission. TNI ‘non organic’ troops (troops who had been brought in from other areas specifically to manage the conflict) were pulling out, presumably happy to be returning to their homes.

Perhaps most striking were the stories from this time of GAM and TNI interacting on what could be considered a friendly level. They would be accidentally caught sitting at the same table at a coffee shop and not wanting to be the first to get up, would exchange stories, jokes and laughter. There were even rumors of a GAM/TNI combined football game. People were making effort, and people were ready for peace at most every turn.

Why this time was ripe for a peace process to take hold is the most interesting question of all. Certainly, the tsunami that devastated large portions of Aceh and killed people from alm! ost every persons family had a huge effect. I suppose it could be considered an important ripening factor. I believe that the tsunami in making everyone equal victims showed people that essentially, we are all the same and we all suffer in a similar way. The TNI were out in the streets clearing bodies away and GAM were coming down from the mountains to see who from their families survived and certainly they met on the streets of Aceh. A peace process that has grown only from this disaster is not likely to have very deep roots, as one local actor said, “If this peace process fails, what are we going to hope for, another tsunami?”

The truth is that the tsunami wasn’t the main catalyst. The negotiations in Helsinki were already in motion before the giant wave struck on the 26 of December 2005. The new government of Indonesia has been incredibly supportive of the process, SBY certainly but Jusuf Kalla, the VP especially. He spent a great deal of time quietly convincing each stakeholder to come and stay at the negotiating table in Helsinki. Also primary stakeholders took the lessons from the failed COHA process and other peace processes in the world and actually implemented them.

We spent the past 10 days doing a security assessment in eastern Aceh, a historically hot zone. Driving through the area, there were posts almost every kilometer yet, almost each one was empty. A few still had military personnel and they were either sitting around or washing their tanks preparing to leave the area. Even small posts positioned inside villages on the coast were abandoned, already taken over by the villagers for homes.

And yesterday we went to the last weapons decommissioning event which was completely subdued and successful. GAM has turned in the required 840 weapons in a very timely manner and the non organic TNI troops are all leaving accordingly. Watching the AMM use their magical machine (a giant circular saw) to chop guns into three pieces was the best thing I have ever seen happen with a weapon.

Watching this process has literally been watching our work in Aceh become obsolete. Clearly, when PBI leaves an area of its own volition it is a positive move, a tribute to peace. However, those of us on the team right now, Marta, Kathryn, Yoko and I have come to love and understand Aceh. We don’t feel ready to leave and it is damn hard to figure how long this peace will last and how long we should wait and see. For today we keep looking for more signs of peace! , almost every day we see another indicator. As we honor the anniversary of the tsunami we can turn enormous pain on its heal and believe that we also honor the deaths of the victims of both conflict and natural disaster who, as it seems today, did not die in vain.

hope you all enjoyed my personal reflections! i hope everyone is well
hugs
sarah