Members of the Indonesian government and Aceh rebel leaders cut short talks on tsunami relief operations and ways of ending a 30-year conflict in the breakaway region, but Finnish mediators invited them to continue negotiations later.
The two sides met at a secluded manor house north of the Finnish capital, Helsinki, for talks convened by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.
Ahtisaari did not reveal why the closed-door talks, which had been scheduled to continue yesterday, finished a day early, but said he had invited both parties for a second round of meetings in Helsinki.
Neither party had yet accepted the invitation, Ahtisaari said, adding that he would be "highly disappointed" if they did not return to Helsinki.
Indonesian Communications Minister Sofyan Djalil described the meetings as "quite hopeful" and said that the two sides would meet again soon.
Ahtisaari said no cease-fire agreement had been reached and declined to comment on the stands of the two sides.
In the eastern part of Aceh province, Indonesian troops clashed with rebels, leaving four rebels dead, Lieutenant Colonel Eddyana Sulistiadie, an Indonesian military spokesman said yesterday. Government troops were unhurt, he said.
Sulistiadie identified one of the slain rebels as Amin Syarief, a rebel commander in rural Madat, and said troops confiscated a cache of weapons in the skirmish Saturday. Such small-scale battles are not uncommon.
Ahtisaari said representatives of the Indonesian government approached him in February, followed by more contacts last month before the tsunami disaster with the government and the Free Aceh Movement, locally known as GAM.
Ahtisaari urged both sides to agree quickly on humanitarian aid so that talks could continue on ending the dispute in Aceh province, where rebels have been fighting for independence since 1976.
"It's not an easy thing to start after so many years of distrust that have developed. On the other hand, I don't think we have an enormous amount of time either," Ahtisaari said. "The question is can we be so successful that we can actually ... go much further in our efforts to try to find a comprehensive settlement."
The Indonesian government said that despite the setback it would continue its tsunami aid operations.
"Whatever the result of the meeting in Helsinki, there will be no impact on the emergency relief effort in Aceh," said Budi Atmaji, who is leading the Indonesian government's tsunami relief effort in the province. "The relief operation will continue as usual."
Ahtisaari also appealed to donor countries to give all the aid they had promised to the tsunami-ravaged region.
Several countries, including France, had encouraged Ahtisaari to continue mediation efforts, as well as Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Ahtisaari, 67, a former peacebroker in Kosovo, was Finland's president from 1994-2000 and has held senior UN posts including commissioner for Namibia and undersecretary-general for management and administration. He was special adviser to the UN secretary-general on the former Yugoslavia in 1993.
He likened the Aceh mediation efforts to a fishing trip.
"This sort of process is a little bit like when you go and try to catch salmon. The salmon is such a good fish that it's worthwhile fishing even if you don't get it," he said.
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