http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/printArticle.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=278143&version=1&template_id=45&parent_id=25
Indonesia polls lack monitors' Publish Date: Wednesday,11 March, 2009, at 11:26 PM Doha Time Volunteers sort ballot papers in preparation for the upcoming parliamentary elections at a subdistrict office in Jakarta yesterday Indonesian parliamentary polls next month are unlikely to trigger widespread violence, but tensions are running high in former hot spots such as Aceh, a regional security analyst said yesterday. A further concern ahead of the April 9 ballot is that there will be fewer election monitors in place to observe voting in Southeast Asia's biggest democracy, said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group (ICG). "Aceh in particular is a place that deserves a lot of attention or areas that have been proposed or subject to new administrative divisions," Jones told foreign correspondents. The resource-rich province of Aceh suffered a three-decade civil war before a peace deal in 2005, but recent shootings and a growing crime problem have raised new concerns over stability. Some of the risks stemmed from deep distrust between the Indonesian military and former supporters of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM). "From the military we've got real resentment and anger that GAM has not dissolved itself ... while GAM continues to raise the issue that the MOU has not been implemented properly," Jones said referring to a memorandum of understanding signed by GAM and the Indonesian government in the 2005 peace accord. Concerns remained that the former rebels were keeping stockpiles of weapons, while the GAM-backed Partai Aceh felt it was being targeted by the Indonesian military, Jones said. However, a recent visit to the province on the tip of Sumatra by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the drafting in of a new police chief had calmed some tensions, she added. Jones said other areas that should be monitored more carefully included places where they had been recent local election disputes such as East Java or North Maluku. She also singled out the North Sumatran region of Tapanuli, where some have been agitating for the creation of a new province, triggering violence last month. The move towards greater decentralisation in Indonesia has at times fanned conflict as local areas attempt to gain control over resources or added to religious divides. Indonesia's parliamentary elections are followed by presidential elections on July 8, but there are not expected to be as many election monitors as in previous elections. There have also been a range of concerns over the complexity of the voting system this year and confusing ballot papers. The head of a parliamentary delegation from the European Union said last week it could not send an election monitoring team to Aceh unless the Indonesian government extended a formal invitation. Reuters [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
