Indonesia To Reopen Talks With Separatists
Proposal Sparked By Informal Truce. Indonesian officials plan to reopen negotiations with separatist rebels in Aceh by the end of this month, building on an informal truce that took hold after the province was battered by the tsunami last month, Foreign Minister Noer Hassan Wirajuda said Wednesday. Though Wirajuda was guarded about the prospects for the talks, they would mark the first formal contacts between the government and the Free Aceh Movement since talks broke down in May 2003 and the Indonesian security forces launched a new offensive. “It is our hope . . . and this is realistic, that at the end of the month we can have a [formal] meeting,” Wirajuda told reporters in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. He said the date and location of the negotiations had yet to be set. Full Story