GAM to hand over more weapons to AMM

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: The fourth stage of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) weapons decommissioning will take place in Southeast Aceh regency between Dec. 14 and Dec. 17, chief of a peace monitoring team said on Thursday.

Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) chief Pieter Feith said he believed GAM would stick to its commitment to hand over the weapons. The rebel movement had handed over 856 weapons to the peace monitoring contingent up until the third phase of weapons decommissioning in November.

The disarmament is part of the Helsinki peace deal forged on August 15 between the Indonesian government and GAM, which ended almost 30 years of bloody armed conflict in the resource-rich province.

In return, the Indonesian Military and police have been urged to withdraw their troops from Aceh. In order to comply with GAM's demand, thousands of police and military personnel have been pulled out of the province. -- Antara