ABSTRACT
Representatives of the armed forces of the Republic of Indonesia (TNI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a Joint Understanding for Humanitarian Pause in Davos, Switzerland, on 12 May 2000. They formally agreed to a pause in the conflict in order to allow for the distribution of humanitarian aid. The parties also agreed ‘to assist in the elimination of all offensive actions by armed elements which do not belong to the Parties to this Joint Understanding’ (Joint Understanding for Humanitarian Pause 2000). These armed elements are what the press and local discourse calls the ‘third force’ element, or provokator.
