EU welcomes peace deal implementation

JAKARTA: The 25-member European Union welcomed on Thursday the start of the formal implementation of the peace agreement in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, and highlighted the support that the EU and five members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were providing through the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), the British foreign minister said.

Britain currently holds the EU presidency.

"As the presidency of the EU, I warmly welcome the start of formal implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement in Helsinki on 15 August," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said in a press release, which was sent to The Jakarta Post by the British Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday.

The peaceful settlement of the internal conflict in Aceh, according to Straw, will be of great benefit to Indonesia and the people of Aceh, as well as providing a very positive example regionally and internationally. "It will greatly assist in the reconstruction and rehabilitation of Aceh following the tragic tsunami there last December."

The release said the launch of a peace mission in Aceh would mark a new departure for European Security and Defense Policy.

"This will be its first mission in Asia, its first in cooperation with ASEAN partners, and its first to carry out monitoring of this kind," Straw said. -- JP