After five months of intense debate, last Monday the Indonesian parliament approved a law granting autonomy to the province of Aceh. The measure, which follows the signing of peace agreements in August 2005, has been criticised by representatives of the former separatist rebels, GAM, who have organised a general strike in protest against a law they claim is “too biased” in favour of the central government.

Half an agreement. The measure only partially satisfies the requests of the Acehnese. When it was first negotiated in talks between Jakarta and the local authorities of the region north of Sumatra, the agreement included the control of natural resources, the setting up of political parties before the elections due to be held in September and the formation of an ad hoc commission to ascertain who was responsible for the military operations that caused thousands of deaths in over 30 years of fighting. However, in its actual form the article 11 of the law establishes that central government is responsible for drawing up the regulations, standards and procedures covering the agreement. 70% of the income from exploiting the natural resources will be destined for the Acehnese, but the management of the oil and natural gas wells will be “jointly run”, which disregards the pre-agreements signed in recent months with the government and the Aech Monitoring Mission (AMM) which was given responsibility for supervising the peace process. It is in fact this point that represents a change of direction compared with the “Memorandum of Understanding” that was signed last year by the parties concerned and which assigned the management of the oil and gas resources to the former rebel province. The victims of the abuses committed by the military during the occupation in the 1990s must now accept that those responsible for these abuses will escape justice since the Commission will only examine cases that happened after its institution.

Threat of appeal. One of the spokesmen for GAM (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, Free Aceh Movement), Yusuf Irwandi, expressed irritation at the new law which “leaves many questions open, questions that could create problems”, as he explained to MISNA, the missionary press agency. “Apart from the division of the resources, the other articles that must be reviewed are the ones that leave a large amount of authority to the central government and that are very vague about the role of the army”. Irwandi has announced that he intends to present an appeal to the Monitoring Mission which in turn has pledged to study the new law and then open consultations with the parties concerned, before its mandate runs out in September. Yusuf Irwandi was “liberated” from the prison where he was being held by the tsunami on 26 December 2004.

The Sharia becomes law. Following a request by the local authorities, the new legislative measures also include the creation of Islamic courts and the application of the Sharia. Twelve articles describe in detail how “Islamic law” will come into effect in a province where Islamic customs and traditions are very strong. There will be a section of the police whose job it will be to ensure that the “Ganun” (legislative provisions) are applied, although these will be examined by the Supreme Court before they become law. With the introduction of Islamic courts, Aceh will become the first province where the Sharia will officially be the law in Indonesia, a country that can boast of a past where tolerance and religious syncretism were the norm.