Jakarta (AsiaNews) Aceh is in the grip of election fever. After 30 years of civil war the province is getting ready to elect its first local government, but the transition from guerrilla movement to political party has been difficult for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Internal tensions and divisions are coming to the fore. At the same time, families of the many victims of the bloody conflict against Jakarta are threatening to boycott the ballot box.
The peace accord signed in August 2005 laid the ground for the elections scheduled for December 11. Voters will choose will choose the next provincial governor and 21 regents (district chiefs). Hitherto local officials were handpicked by central government in Jakarta.
GAM is running 30 independents, a first in the country where candidates could only run as part of a party ticket. But the movement is divided between the leadership in exile in Sweden and those former fighters who stayed behind.
In order to avoid a dangerous split, which would weaken it, the local GAM has decided to be neutral after its external leader, Malik Mahmud, threw his support behind two candidates: Ahmad Humam Hamid, who represents the National Islamic Party, and Hasbi Abdullah, a former rebel running now as an independent. Former fighters instead seem to favour former commander Irwandi Yusuf and human rights activist Muhammad Nazar.
Meanwhile parts of the population are threatening not to take part in the vote because no candidate has yet talked about providing justice to the victims of the conflict.
Yesterday, in a rally in front of the Independent Commission for Elections in Banda Aceh, droves of people slammed politicians for what they consider the amnesia that followed the signing of a peace agreement a year ago.
"No one talks about human rights any longer, as if human rights violations had never happened in Aceh," a student said.
According to data from the Aceh chapter of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), there were as many as 15,000 cases of human rights violations in Aceh. Only about 10 percent of them have been resolved.
