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.