Visiting Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid indicated Monday that he would announce within a month a referendum on independence for the country's restive Aceh province, according to a senior Japanese politician.
Wahid made the remarks during a meeting with Taku Yamasaki, former policy affairs chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and head of the Japan-Indonesia Parliamentarians' League.
Yamasaki told reporters that Wahid said the results of the referendum would be important, adding that the people of Aceh could choose either an Islamic state, a non-Islamic state or the continuation of its status as a special region of Indonesia.