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128Islam, Democracy and Human Rights in Contemporary IndonesiaAt that time, as the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs ofJakarta State University, I was also appointed by President GusDur as Deputy Minister at this ministry.After a quarter of a century of the historic policy, thedynamics of Aceh Freedom Movement (GAM) have beenresolved comprehensively through a peaceful dialoguein Helsinki between the Indonesian Government and GAM.Meanwhile, the separatist movement of the Free PapuaOrganization (OPM) in Papua has no end, although the Acehproblem was obviously much more complicated.Since the Helsinki Peace Accords for Aceh were successfullysigned by both parties, Hamid Awaluddin representing the Indonesian Government and Malik Mahmud from the GAM side, onAugust 15, 2005, in Helsinki, there have been no more drops ofblood to wet the land of Aceh. Although previously, during thethree decades of conflict (1975-2005), as reported by Amnesty International (2015), there were 2-3 victims who died every day, eitherfrom the civilian population or from the military (TNI-Polri) orGAM.Under such circumstances, suddenly on December 24, 2004,Aceh was greatly devastated by a tsunami. The United Nationsreported that some 240 thousand deaths, about half a millionAcehnese lost their homes, and had a bad impact on the lives of158 million other people spread across 14 countries that werealso devastated by the tsunami (UN Press Release 14/07/2005).In addition, it is estimated that Aceh%u2019s economic losses arearound USD 7.7 billion (ScienceDirect, 12/06/2021).Under such conditions, unexpectedly, GAM figures openedtheir minds to have a peaceful dialogue with the IndonesianGovernment. On the initiative of Indonesian Vice President Jusuf

