Adi Warsidi, Banda Aceh – Around 1,000 people from a number of Acehnese social organisations participated in a seminar to discuss a draft law on the organisation of a government in Aceh. The event was held at the Dayan Dawood Building on the Syah Kuala University (Unsyiah) campus in Banda Aceh on October 11.

Present at the seminar was the governor of Aceh, the regional chief of police, regional military command representatives, members of the Regional House of Representatives, all of Aceh’s provincial regents, the district police chief, district military command representatives and Acehnese government officials. Also present were religious leaders, public figures, non-government organisations, students, all of the Acehnese members of the national House of Representatives and Regional Representatives Council as well as leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Among other things the seminar discussed a draft law which has been drawn up by three teams from Unsyiah, the State Institute of Islamic Studies (IAIN) and the Malikussaleh University. On the question of human rights for example, the team from Unsyiah and IAIN included a section stating that civil crimes perpetrated by the TNI (Indonesian military) will be tried by a civilian court.

Meanwhile, GAM’s negotiator in Helsinki, Nur Djuli, said they are presently conducting an analysis of a draft law from the Aceh regional government. For GAM he said, what is important is that none of the points in the draft law deviate from the memorandum of understanding (MoU) which was agreed to between GAM and the Indonesian government in Helsinki.

“If there is one word which deviates from the MoU, then it will be considered to have violated the MoU, and that will create risks”, he said.

[Translated by James Balowski.]