Indonesia offers autonomy to disaster-area rebels

Indonesia’s offer of autonomy for tsunami-hit Aceh is on the table today for talks with rebel envoys in Finland, providing the best hope in years of ending the conflict which has threatened relief efforts in the area hit worst by the disaster.

Meanwhile, delegates from Asian nations are meeting today in the battered Thai resort island of Phuket to discuss details of a tsunami early warning system that could help minimise casualties in future disasters.

Following the St Stephen's Day earthquake and tsunami that killed between 98,000 and 123,000 in Indonesia alone, Jakarta and the rebels briefly put their three-decade conflict on hold. However, both sides have accused each other of renewing the conflict, threatening to disrupt the massive international aid efforts in the province.

In Jakarta, Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters that the government had offered Aceh rebel leaders a chance to “terminate the conflict peacefully, of course in the framework of the unity of the Republic of Indonesia and by adopting the special autonomy status”.

The rebels have long demanded full independence.

The warring sides are expected to start peace talks in Helsinki, probably today, to try to hammer out a formal ceasefire.

Aceh rebels have been fighting since 1976 for independence for the province of 4.1 million people on the northern tip of Sumatra island, a conflict that has killed 13,000 people. A previous truce collapsed in 2003 when the Indonesian military launched a new offensive.

Yudhoyono offered concessions to the guerrillas ahead of the Helsinki meeting, including an amnesty, if they agreed to the ceasefire. He said there was “a great momentum for us to really end the conflict, unite with our brothers and to rebuild Aceh”.

A rebel leader in Aceh said they would respect whatever deal was reached in the talks, but added he did not expect much.

“It is Indonesia which has to get out from our country, Aceh. Indonesia is the coloniser,” Tengku Mucksalmina told The Associated Press by telephone from his mountain hideout.

However, a rebel spokesman in Helsinki was cautiously optimistic

“It sounds positive from our point of view,” said Bakhtiar Abdullah, a spokesman from the Free Aceh Movement said, after arriving in the Finnish capital.

Abdullah said the rebel delegation would focus in talks on making it safe for relief workers to help rebuild Aceh in the wake of the tsunami.

“That’s the most important part of the negotiations,” he said.

Moves are also under way in Sri Lanka to ease tension between Tamil Tiger rebels and the government. The two sides agreed to meet to resolve disagreements over the distribution of aid to rebuild tsunami-damaged areas under guerrilla control.

The two sides are scheduled to hold their first direct meeting today over guerrilla demands for greater control over relief efforts in areas they control in the north and east. If an agreement is reached, it would mark the first collaboration on a political level since peace talks between the two sides collapsed in April 2003.

In Phuket, a two-day conference follows a broad endorsement of a tsunami warning system at a United Nations gathering in Japan last week. Several nations, including the United States and Germany, have drawn up plans for how to set up the network.

But the task will not be easy. Southern Asian nations have monitoring equipment for earthquakes and other natural phenomena, some of it outdated or in disrepair, but officials say it needs to be expanded to tsunami detection.

Experts say scores of lives could have been saved if a warning system – like the one that already exists in the Pacific – had been in place in the Indian Ocean.

The disaster killed between 145,000 and 178,000 people in 11 countries and left tens of thousands more missing and feared dead.