ASEAN countries to send peace monitors to Aceh

ASEAN countries to send peace monitors to Aceh

Jason Gutierrez, Agence France-Presse/Vientiane

Southeast Asian countries have agreed to join a peace monitoring
mission in Indonesia's Aceh province in a move which could lead
to a more formalized regional conflict-monitoring system,
officials said on Wednesday.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said he made a
formal request to colleagues from the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) to help monitor a peace deal to be signed
Aug. 15 with separatist rebels.

He said some nations gave "firm commitments" to supply
monitors in Indonesia's westernmost province. The Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) and the government are due to sign the deal ending
almost 30 years of guerrilla insurgency.

"So far, countries from ASEAN that we have asked to contribute
to the Aceh peace monitoring mission have expressed their
willingness," Hassan told AFP, naming Singapore, Malaysia,
Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines.

Thai Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon told reporters
his country was prepared to commit about 20 to 40 monitors,
"depending on requests."

His Philippine counterpart, Alberto Romulo, said the mechanics
of the mission would be finalized at a meeting of ASEAN officials
on Aug. 1-2 in Jakarta.

The meeting could be a step towards an "ASEAN-wide Indonesian-
led peace monitoring mission" that could be deployed to other
member states in the future, Romulo said.

Foreign monitors were first deployed to Aceh under a short-
lived cease-fire agreed in 2002. But a few dozen unarmed monitors
from Thailand and the Philippines were forced to withdraw amid
escalating violence.

Malaysia and Brunei have also supplied about 60 military
personnel to monitor a fragile cease-fire between Manila and the
separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

Indonesia last year proposed that ASEAN set up its own
peacekeeping force as part of the ASEAN Security Community, the
10-nation bloc's general pledge to live in peace.

But there has been little further talk of the idea. Singapore
expressed reservations, arguing that ASEAN is not a security or
defense organization, while Vietnam was also reportedly cool to
the proposal.

Hassan acknowledged that some nations had expressed
"sensitivities" about such a move.

Indonesia's foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said
the proposed multilateral Aceh mission would be a sign of the
region's willingness to deal with such problems.

"It's increasingly becoming the norm that ASEAN countries
assist one another in such an undertaking. It shows that ASEAN is
increasingly becoming more mature in its capacity in dealing with
security issues," Marty said.

The European Union (EU) has also committed to send monitors.
Details would be firmed up when EU foreign policy chief Javier
Solana attends ASEAN's regional security forum here on Thursday.

The monitors would oversee the decommissioning and destruction
of weapons that would be surrendered by GAM, as well as the
peaceful withdrawal of the Indonesian forces from the region,
Marty said.

Hassan on Wednesday met New Zealand Foreign Minister Phil Goff
in bilateral talks that also focused on Aceh.

"I think that it is very important that the EU and the
countries in ASEAN will contribute a monitoring organization as
part of confidence-building that will help achieve the outcome
that the Indonesian government and negotiators of GAM are looking
forward to," Goff told reporters.