Brussels, 24/01/2007 (AN/NA) - On Tuesday 23 January, Peter Feith of the Netherlands drew the first lessons to be learnt from the EU mission in Aceh for monitoring the ceasefire, demilitarisation, disarmament and full implementation of the peace agreements there. The mission came to an end in mid-December 2006 after one and a half years. Peter Feith went on to explain that it is a mission that can be counted among the successes of ESDP. He was speaking before the members of the European Parliament sub-committee on security and defence chaired by German Christian Democrat Karl von Wogau.
Despite doubts expressed in the region and in a number of member states at the beginning of the mission, the European team has managed to ensure application of the agreements negotiated in Helsinki, thus allowing peace to be restored in the Indonesian province after 30 years of conflict that have caused 10,000 deaths, and after the tsunami with its 40,000 victims. Among the keys to this success, he cited the quality of EU/ASEAN cooperation, the good coordination of European players and the transparency of activities conducted by the European mission. Peter Feith was confident that the peace process would continue and that application of the Sharia would, as foreseen, remain moderate in the province. “The conflict is truly over”, he said, pointing out that Matti Ahtissari (who had taken part in starting up the operation) and himself remained available to provide any aid that parties might call upon them to provide. He explained that this mission resulted in an unprecedented level of visibility and credibility for the EU in Indonesia and throughout the region. It bears witness to the fact that “even without the constitutional treaty, crisis management is perfectly achievable”, he said, without however neglecting the improvements that the treaty could bring.
When asked by British Labour member Glyn Ford about a possible mission of this kind in Sri Lanka, Peter Feith said that the main lesson to be learnt was that such a mission can only truly succeed if there is real political resolve on the part of all parties to commit to a peace process. “This is not the case in Sri Lanka”, he said, stressing that an operation there would require more means as well as a military component. (oj)