LEGISLATOR CONCERNED ABOUT CONTINUING ARMED VIOLENCE IN ACEH

Banda Aceh, Feb 5 (ANTARA)- A member of the central parliament has expressed concern about the occurrence of fatallties in a series incidents involving armed individuals in the past week in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) province.
"We are concerned that armed violence continues to happen in Aceh," HM Nasir Djamil, a member of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission III (legal and human right affairs) said here on Thursday.
Without mentioning the armed violence incidents in specific detail, he said armed violence kept on being committed in the formerly conflict-torn province because of five factors.
The first factor had to do with the unideal ratio between the number of police personnel and the population. The second factor was the low level of the provincial police's intelligence capability. The third factor was the fact that many fire arms were still being illegally kept by irresponsible elements in the province.
He said the fourth factor was the regional elite's indifference toward a growing discontent in the community about existing injustices in the province while the fifth factor was the regional community's low cohesiveness as a consequence of their post-conflict trauma.
"In our view, it is these five factors that are causing armed violence in NAD to conntinue," Djamil said.
To overcome the problem, Djamil said, the NAD police should launch a program to educate and train the community in performing police duties so that they could actively help to maintain security and order in their own neigbborhoods.
Implementation of such a program was also important in view of the upcoming general elections, he said.
Djamil said the armed violence problem did not need to be solved through a "security approach" only but also through a "cultural approach."
"Acehnese people are very tolerant and quite open toward each other. Thus they can be easily guided into adopting and practicing a non-violent culture," Djamil added.
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