More military troops pulled out of Aceh
More military troops pulled out of Aceh
Agence France-Presse Banda Aceh
The Indonesian Military (TNI) on Monday withdrew another 2,500 troops from Aceh as part of a peace pact aimed at ending a separatist conflict in the tsunami-hit province.
The move means that just half of the 24,000 extra troops Jakarta originally sent to the troubled region to contain the conflict will remain there until the end of the year.
Monday's troop pull-out concluded the second of four planned phases of withdrawals called for by a historic peace pact signed on Aug. 15 in Helsinki between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government.
The troops -- two battalions and four companies -- left aboard three navy ships from Krueng Geukeuh port in northern Aceh, military spokesman Lt. Col. Eri Soediko told AFP.
Some 6,000 troops were redeployed from Aceh in September and another 6,000 troops had been pulled out of the province in the past few days as part of phase two, Eri said.
The remainder of the 24,000 troops and a large contingent of military police will follow once GAM fulfills its commitment to hand over the second half of its declared 840 weapon arsenal in two stages by the end of the year. The rebels have already handed in about half of their arsenal.
Observers see the agreement as the best chance yet of ending the conflict, which has claimed about 15,000 lives, most of them civilians, since GAM began its struggle for an independent state in 1976.
Under the accord, GAM dropped its long-held demand for independence in exchange for a form of local government in Aceh, a province of about four million people.
Several earlier agreements to end the 30-year war that has collapsed amid bitterness and distrust. But efforts to end the fighting picked up after the Dec. 26 tsunami that killed over 130,000 people in Aceh and left a half million others homeless.
The warring factions said they did not want to add to people's suffering and when they met to hammer out a deal, both made major concessions.