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Kalla Meets With Yudhoyono to Discuss Violence
Arientha Primanita & Antara | January 17, 2012

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shytallnight
5:11pm Jan 17, 2012

I'd not be suprised if all of this falls on deaf ears. The government cannot even intervene with the clear cut case of the Yasmin church which is right on the doorstep.

meautiayu
3:33pm Jan 17, 2012

I’m glad that someone took action abt this. Again, it is someone from the past who takes action. Last time, habibie flew to saudi to freed our workers.

I expected president takes action by his own capability and will....

I hope this action doesnt contain any unspeakable motives, just pure conscience and sincerity.

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Former Vice President Jusuf Kalla met with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday reportedly to discuss the recent spate of violence in Aceh, in a sign of the gravity with which the government is treating the run-up to the regional elections there.

A source close to Kalla, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the main purpose of the meeting at the State Palace was to address the string of unresolved shootings and firebombings that have rocked the province since last October and left six people dead since Dec. 30.

“J.K. is, after all, an expert on the problems in Aceh, so he was asked for his input on the matter,” the source said.

Kalla was instrumental in forging the peace deal between the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004.

The peace deal, signed in August 2005 in Helsinki, ended nearly three decades of armed insurgency in Aceh and led to the disbanding of GAM.

In recent months, however, the province has once again been wracked by violence, believed to be linked to next month’s elections.

The shootings began in October and have continued into the new year. In the latest incident, two construction workers from Java were wounded and another killed after an unknown gunman opened fire on a group of workers in Aceh Besar district on Jan. 5.

Six people have been killed in multiple shootings across the province since Dec. 30.

On Monday, the military also indicated that it believed the violence was politically motivated. Military spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar Sitompul said the weapons used in the attacks were not believed to have been smuggled in from outside the province.

“These are guns that were left over from the previous conflict [involving GAM],” he said.

Most former GAM members went on to form the Aceh Party, whose candidates have been barred from running in the upcoming polls after the party boycotted the registration process in protest over a ruling allowing independent candidates to run.