Peace monitors to stay longer in Aceh as disarmament ends

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Nani Afrida, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is expected to extend the presence of international peace monitors in Aceh, previously scheduled to finish their job in March, for another three months in a bid to help ensure a lasting peace in the province.

In Banda Aceh, former separatist rebels surrendered a final batch of weapons on Monday to meet the total 840 pieces required under the peace agreement signed in August 2005.

Minister of Communications and Information Sofyan Djalil said the government would hold a meeting later this month to discuss the possible extension of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM)'s presence to supervise the implementation of the peace deal with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

"It's probably for another three months, but it is subject to the government's evaluation," he told the press in Jakarta on Monday.

He said the number of AMM personnel would, however, be reduced as their main task of monitoring the decommissioning of GAM weapons and the withdrawal of reinforcement soldiers and police in Aceh is set to be complete by the end of this month.

As many as 50 of the total 210 AMM monitors from ASEAN and the European Union would leave Aceh as early as this week following Monday's completion of the arms decommissioning.

Sofyan said AMM's next task would probably be to monitor the implementation of direct regional elections in Aceh in accordance with the peace deal.

Earlier in the day, a number of ambassadors from ASEAN and EU countries held a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who supervised the peace talks in the Finnish capital of Helsinki that resulted in the Aug. 15 truce.

Among the ambassadors in attendance were Brunei's Mohammad Amin, Malaysia's Zainal Abidin Zain, the Philippines' Shulan Primavera, Thailand's Atchara Seriputra, Singapore's Edward Lee, the United Kingdom's Charles Humfrey and EU delegation head Jean Breteche.

Also present at the meeting were Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adi Sucipto, Minister of Information and Communication Sofyan Djalil, AMM chief Peter Feith, and Juha Cristensen, a Dane who helped facilitate the peace talks.

"The ambassadors wanted to know about the future of AMM because they need to inform their governments," Sofyan said, adding that AMM had played a very positive role in the peace process in Aceh.

Separately, Feith said the security situation in Aceh had improved and that there was no need for AMM to stay there longer than July 1.

"I think confidence and stability in Aceh has now increased to a level where we don't need them beyond the maximum of the first of July," he said after the meeting.

Feith said he expects Aceh will hold its first direct election sometime between April and June.

In the meantime, GAM said it had fulfilled its obligations under the landmark peace accord by handing over a final batch of 37 weapons.

The peace agreement required the former rebels to surrender all of their 840 firearms, and for the Indonesian military (TNI) to withdraw nearly 24,000 troops from oil- and gas-rich Aceh by the year's end.

GAM gave up the last of their guns at the Harapan Bangsa sports stadium in Lhongraya, Banda Raya district, Banda Aceh, in two stages.

The first stage took place at around 10:30 a.m., where GAM members handed over 37 firearms, with two of them disqualified by the AMM. The remaining two were later surrendered at around 4:30 p.m.

AMM has recognized a total of 805 weapons surrendered by the rebels since the start of the disarmament in September, but declined to officially say if GAM had met its arms decommissioning quota.

However, the government was still questioning the qualification of 71 of the 840 weapons surrendered by GAM in the four stages. "The Indonesian government has so far recognized only 767 firearms, no more," said AMM's government representative Bambang Darmono, who was formerly an Aceh military commander.

In response, GAM spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said his side would leave the issue of disputed guns to the international peace monitors for settlement.

"Today we have completed the disarmament. I think the number of surrendered weapons is already enough," he said.

Bakhtiar said GAM would symbolically surrender the last weapon on Wednesday, which would be destroyed.

The government is expected to withdraw the last of its soldiers and police on Dec. 20, 27 and 29.