AMM finds Thailand rifle

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: The Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) has found a Thai military and police standard rifle among weapons and ammunition handed over by former rebel Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to the monitoring body. Nipat Thonglek, an AMM official from Thailand, commented that the find was surprising, but said the monitoring body would enquire into how the HK 33 rifle had got into rebel hands.

The weapon hand-over was held on Tuesday in Takengon, Central Aceh regency. Members of the former rebel organization handed over 57 weapons to AMM that were immediately destroyed.

With the 57 firearms handed over, AMM has so far received a total of 286 weapons from GAM. In return, the Indonesian military and police have pulled out 10,394 personnel from Aceh. The weapons hand-over and troop pull-out were part of the Helsinki peace agreement signed in August this year aimed at creating lasting peace in Aceh. -- JP