Police elite force leaves Aceh
The Jakarta Post Lhokseumawe/Jakarta
Around 1,300 Mobile Brigade Police left Aceh on Wednesday as part of a peace agreement with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels which requires the Indonesian government to gradually withdraw security forces personnel from the province.
The pullout of the police strike force came a day before GAM members start handing over guns to foreign monitors.
Peace was reached on Aug. 15 after GAM gave up its demand for independence in Aceh, where 30 years of fighting has killed 15,000 people. Officials expect the deal to help reconstruction in the tsunami-stricken province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.
"The two sides have a strong will to end the conflict," National Police chief Gen. Sutanto said as he sent off the police who boarded a vessel.
"This goodwill has been apparent during meetings between the two sides, which have been full of warmth."
Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) chief Pieter Feith also witnessed the pullout.
The policemen joked and laughed as they carried their automatic weapons and backpacks onto the ship in Lhokseumawe on Aceh's northern coast after an army brass band gave them a send- off. Many carried souvenirs such as caged birds.
"I am really happy that I will be seeing my family again," Imannuel, a policeman from Sulawesi, told Reuters.
Added Saefuddin from Kalimantan: "During my duty in Aceh, I was in firefights but God protected us."
Under the scrutiny of European and Southeast Asian monitors in the AMM, Jakarta will remove troops and police simultaneously as GAM hands over weapons in four stages until the end of the year.
There are more than 30,000 soldiers in Aceh, as well as about 15,000 police. The final withdrawal under the Helsinki accord will leave Aceh with around 14,700 soldiers and 9,100 police.
Aceh Police spokesman Djoko Turochman said that after Wednesday's pullout, some 4,000 police would still need to leave.
The troop withdrawal as well as the decommissioning of weapons and destruction of 840 GAM weapons is seen as one element that could derail the landmark peace deal if not enough guns are given up.
GAM has said 210 weapons would be handed in during the first phase on Thursday that lasts for a few days.
Jakarta has said the military was comfortable with the number of weapons that GAM has stated as the arsenal held by some 3,000 active rebels.
In Jakarta, a closed-door meeting between the House of Representatives and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), however, revealed that the actual number of GAM's weapons could be double the number claimed by the group.
"We doubt that the real figure is just 840. So we called for a contingency plan," said Yuddy Chrisnandi, a member of House Commission I on defense and foreign affairs.
The commission, he added, suggested a mechanism whereby both sides would be allowed free access to scrutinize each other's camps after all 840 weapons have been surrendered and all reinforcement troops are withdrawn.
"For example, the TNI and the AMM would be given access to GAM's base camps to see if there are any weapons left, and the GAM would also have access to our military bases," said Yuddy of the Golkar Party.