Police elite force leaves Aceh

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.