Thank you EU

They were joined by Indonesian police and military personnel. Since then, the war of the past three decades, fought with bullets, has been replaced by the ballot box.

The European Union (EU) was one of the parties actively involved in peace attempts before the historic signing of the MOU in Helsinki. It proceeded to set up the AMM; its weekly meetings with former combatants, led by Pieter Feith, helped build trust in the early years of peace building.

Despite occasional acts of violence, residents, now led by the second directly elected governor, Zaini Abdullah, largely enjoy peace, while expectations have risen to not only survive the post-war period but to rebuild lives after the 2004 tsunami and earthquake.

Witness the happy, proud faces of Acehnese students at a Malaysian flying school, published in the local daily Serambi Indonesia – these future pilots are a tiny part of Aceh’s new generation, which the administration has invested in through scholarships.

Investing in Aceh’s future generation is the ultimate contribution to sustainable peace in Aceh, initially enabled by the support of the international community in efforts to end the war and to reconstruct and rehabilitate a devastated land.

What the EU provided was an acceptable role for the conflicting parties, the Indonesian government and GAM. Indonesia did not want to internationalise the settlement of the conflict, in the wake of the violence preceding Timor’s separation after the UN-sponsored referendum. Finland’s Crisis Management Initiative then brokered the Helsinki agreement, which catapulted its leader, former president Mastti Ahtisaari, to the Nobel Peace Prize.

As in the independent Timor, Aceh is not free of internal conflict, as recent regional elections have shown. However, within a democratic Indonesia, Aceh largely has the tools to at least suppress any incentive that might lead to a recurrence of ethno-nationalist sentiments, the main fertile ground for recruitment by the former GAM.

Along with Papua, the province is entitled to a larger share of revenue from its natural resources compared to other provinces, and it has its own special autonomy law.

Aceh leaders now face the challenge to live up to the high expectations of the electorate, who will boot them out at the next elections if they cannot overcome poverty and unemployment, and manage political conflicts, partially related, observers say, to the lucrative projects perceived to be available under donor-sponsored programmes.

The Acehnese have not been left alone. EU representative Giovanni Serritella said the EU will continue to support forestry, environmental, climate-change and economic development programmes in Aceh, even after its seven-year mission to monitor peace ends next month.

Apart from the challenge of ending corruption, Aceh still faces other uncertainties – including that of sharia laws. The new governor has not detailed what he meant by his commitment to “replicate” the rule of 16th century ruler Iskandar Muda, a time that he described as prosperous and harmonious while based on the Koran and the Prophet’s sayings.

In the meantime, from the bottom of our hearts, we would like to express Indonesia’s gratitude to the people and leaders of the EU for its assistance in Aceh; and to the dedicated men and women who have returned a sense of security and confidence among people who have lost so much.