Jakarta completes army withdrawal from Aceh
Today, the last soldiers are leaving, to be followed on Saturday by the police, who will exceed the contingent stipulated in the agreement. Political participation of the rebels and employment for former GAM fighters are upcoming challenges for the peace process.
Banda Aceh (AsiaNews/Agencies) The Indonesian army today completed the final phase of withdrawal of its troops from Aceh province, one of the main conditions of the peace agreement signed with separatist rebels.
An army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Eri Soetiko, said 3,353 soldiers will leave from the port of Lhokseumawe by the end of today. Thus, government forces in Aceh will dwindle from 35,000 to 14,700. On 31 December, the last remaining contingent of police will also withdraw, leaving 9,100 policemen in the region.
Today's withdrawal comes two days after the dismantling of the military wing of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
The accord, reached thanks to Finnish mediation, ended a long conflict for autonomy in the province in north Sumatra. In 30 years of war, around 15,000 people were killed, most of them civilians. The agreement was signed on 15 August after talks between the two parties were accelerated by the tsunami. Aceh was the worst-hit region: the disaster which struck on 26 December 2004 left 170,000 victims in its wake, what with people killed or missing.
The military commander of Aceh, Supiadin A.S, said that in all, the government had withdrawn 24,125 soldiers from across the province. For its part, GAM handed in 840 weapons.
In recent weeks, however, an announcement by Jakarta, that it wanted to send some 1000 military engineers to Aceh, has fuelled tension. The stated reason for such a move was to help reconstruction in more remote areas.
The rebels see the initiative as a government pretext for greater control and as a threat to the peace agreement. Nonetheless, GAM spokesman, Bachtiar Abdullah, expressed his confidence in the international observers: if they do not impede, this, "we will have faith in them".
Analysts say the real challenges which lie ahead are finding jobs for ex GAM fighters and meeting the rebels' request to the government for political participation. The next step stipulated by the agreement is the participation of GAM in provincial elections in April. This will be possible only if Jakarta comes up with a legislative formula to accept that a party which does not exist on a national scale as requested by the constitution may contest local elections.
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27/12/2005
