JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said on Thursday (July 25th) that he will do whatever he can to keep the Aceh administration from flying the flag of a now-disbanded separatist group as its provincial standard, local media reported.
Aceh authorities insist they plan to raise it on August 15th, The Jakarta Globe reported, now that talks with the central government aimed at averting use of the flag have failed.
"The qanun on which the plan is based is not yet official, so the new flag can't be used," Gamawan said, referring to Aceh's adopted Islamic title for bylaws issued in the province. He stressed that as with local regulations issued elsewhere in the country, qanun is trumped by national laws.
The provincial administration, on Wednesday, announced it would raise the flag for the first time on August 15th, to mark the eighth anniversary of the peace deal that ended the three-decade-long insurgency waged by the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has since disbanded.
Aceh Governor Zaini Abdullah, a former GAM official, said the decision to adopt the GAM flag as the provincial standard reflects popular sentiment.
Acehonline reported that Co-ordinating Minister for Politics and Legal Affairs Djoko Suyanto urged GAM to use Indonesia's red and white flag as agreed on earlier. "In the MoU, GAM agreed to return to the Republic of Indonesia," Djoko said Thursday.
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