New York--The governor of Acheh province, Indonesia, spoke at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights on Sept. 11. Irwandi Yusuf, who was a leader of the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM), is the first governor to be elected by the people of Acheh. A peace agreement (Memorandum of Understanding--MOU), signed between GAM and the Jakarta government in 2005 in Helsinki, provided for elections and other forms of semi-autonomy, following years of repression and killing. Gov. Yusuf, who took office in February, permitted N&L to record his talk, in recognition of our years of support for Acheh. Excerpts of his comments and responses to questions appear below:

After peace talks failed in 2003, Indonesia declared martial law in Acheh. I was arrested and sentenced to nine years. I had served 19 months when the tsunami of December 2004 swept away the jail I was in, and I just walked away. In 2005, I became a GAM representative to the peace talks. The MOU provided for Indonesia to withdraw its military occupation, and for GAM to disarm. The first popular election for governor--in Acheh and anywhere in Indonesia--was held last December. The MOU permits local political parties to be formed in Acheh for the first time. There are now five or six parties, of which two are registered.

In Helsinki we agreed to establish a human rights court, but we failed to agree on what human rights violations would be heard. The agreement doesn’t say whether that court is to have jurisdiction over past abuses or just future ones; of course, Jakarta says only future ones. The MOU also mandates that a peace and reconciliation commission (PRC) be set up. Neither has been implemented.

The rights won in the MOU are restricted by Law #11, requiring all local laws to accord with existing national law. We need to amend that law, set up our own institutions without authorization, or get the Indonesian president to establish the PRC.

I want to make peace in Acheh sustainable, but it’s impossible to know now what will happen. Whether the Indonesian military might be let loose in Acheh again depends on what happens in Jakarta. I am worried about the national elections in 2009. If the ultranationalist party wins, it might refuse to implement the MOU. We don’t know yet how real our rights to autonomy will be, but I intend to push the law to the limit.

Reconstruction from the tsunami is progressing, but we still have 20,000 people housed in barracks. We expect to finish the 15,000 new houses we need by April 2008. New roads are under construction. Unemployment is a problem, and after the foreign governments and NGOs who are administering aid leave, it will be an even more serious problem.

Some of the unemployed are former combatants. The MOU provides for monetary assistance to 3,000 GAM members, to assist their re-integration into society. But there were 15,000 fighters and many more in the political wing. I am in charge of the reintegration process, but Jakarta hasn’t sent me all the money the MOU requires. Actually, I hate the term “reintegration” because GAM was never disintegrated from society. We always had the support of the people.

Eighty percent of the remaining forests in Sumatra are in Acheh. Much of the land is degraded from illegal logging by the military and others. In June, I declared a moratorium on logging. No trees may be cut except farmed trees. Some illegal logging continues, but much less than before. We will re-forest some land. We may make some farms for biofuel, timber and fruit trees for rural livelihoods. We will save the preserves and the animals in them.

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