Third phase of GAM weapons decommissioning begins

Third phase of GAM weapons decommissioning begins

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

After two successful weapons handover, the third phase of Free
Aceh Movement's (GAM) weapons decommissioning is scheduled to
take place from Monday to Thursday (Nov. 14 to Nov. 17), the Aceh
Monitoring Mission said.

In a media statement issued on Sunday, AMM said all weapons,
ammunition and explosives would be collected and destroyed in
five different areas on the province's west coast during the
four-day arms handover.

The handover will first take place on Nov. 14 in an area near
Calang in Aceh Jaya. The second day of the weapons
decommissioning will take place in West Aceh and Nagan Raya, the
third in Southwest Aceh and the last day in South Aceh.

"In accordance with established procedures agreed to in the
Commission of Security Arrangements (COSA), the exact locations
in each area will be communicated by GAM to the AMM closer to the
start of the decommissioning," the AMM statement said.

"The plan may be subject to changes for operational purposes."

AMM, consisting of European Union (EU) and ASEAN peace
monitors, has been working in Aceh since Sept. 15 and is expected
to end its tenure on March 15, 2006. Its main duty is to monitor
the implementation of the Aug. 15 peace agreement between GAM and
the Indonesian government.

The decommissioning of GAM weapons started on Sept. 15 and was
to be executed in four stages.

The fourth and last phase is expected to take place in
December.

Under the peace agreement reached in Finland, GAM is committed
to hand over 840 arms.

The agreement stipulates that at least 210 weapons should be
collected in each phase.

During the first two phases of weapons decommissioning a total
of 570 weapons were handed over by GAM. Of these, 424 were
received by both AMM and the government of Indonesia.

A further 52 weapons were accepted by AMM but are still
disputed by the government. The rest were disqualified by both
AMM and the government because they were out of order.

AMM said the successful completion of the monthly weapons
collections would trigger a withdrawal in stages of non-organic
Indonesian military and police forces from Aceh each month.

The withdrawal of non-organic military and police forces in
November is planned to start immediately after the final day of
the third phase of the decommissioning, the mission statement
said. Military and police personnel had also been withdrawn after
the first two phases of weapons decommissioning.

Four Mobile Decommissioning Teams consisting of monitors from
the EU and five ASEAN countries will collect and decommission the
weapons.