Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 05/2013

Indonesia: Tensions over Aceh's Flag

May 2013

International Crisis Group

Abstract

Indonesia: Tensions over Aceh’s Flag, the latest briefing from the International Crisis Group, examines the political fallout from the Aceh provincial legislature’s adoption of a regulation on 25 March making the banner of the former rebel Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, GAM) the province’s official flag. The central government says the regulation violates a law banning separatist symbols and must be changed. Partai Aceh, the political party set up by the former rebels, says the flag cannot be separatist since GAM leaders signed a 2005 peace agree! ment with the Indonesian government in Helsinki in which it acknowledged Indonesian sovereignty.