TNI withdraws from Aceh 2,600 more soldiers
TNI withdraws from Aceh 2,600 more soldiers
Agencies, Lhokseumawe
The Indonesian Military (TNI) withdrew another 2,600 soldiers
from Aceh on Tuesday as part of the military's commitment to an
accord to end three decades of fighting with separatist rebels.
The troops -- among some 30,000 security forces slated to
leave the province by Dec. 31 -- set sail from the northern port
town of Lhokseumawe on three warships -- bringing the total
number of soldiers and police to leave so far to over 5,000.
The soldiers sang and waved their helmets in the air on
Tuesday as they boarded the vessels, which left for the towns of
Palembang on Sumatra island, and Semarang and Surabaya on the
main island of Java.
"This withdrawal reflects our commitment to fulfill our
obligation to support the peace deal," said local military
commander Maj. Gen. Supiadin Aries Saputra.
About 200 residents gathered to bid farewell to the soldiers
at the Lhokseumawe port. The area around the town was a
stronghold for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) during the conflict,
which began in 1976 and claimed some 15,000 lives.
Some of the onlookers cried and hugged the soldiers before
they boarded two ships with their automatic weapons. Three other
ships were scheduled to arrive later in the day to carry the
soldiers back to their home base in East Java province.
Yuni Lasmiati, 28, broke into uncontrollable sobs as her
soldier boyfriend Eko Wahyudi went aboard. Other Acehnese waved
their hands and shouted personal messages to soldiers as the
ships slowly left port.
Several foreign observers from the Aceh Monitoring Mission
(AMM), in charge of overseeing the peace process, were on hand.
The agreement to end the civil war calls on the military to
more than halve the troops it has in the province by the year's
end and for separatist rebels to hand in all of their self-
declared 840 weapons.
Implementation of the deal began last week, when the rebels
surrendered more than a quarter of their armory, raising hopes
that the agreement to end the war in the oil and gas-rich region
might succeed where several others failed.
But analysts warn that it is too early to celebrate.
"You're basically calling on goodwill to overcome generations
of bad blood," said Ken Conboy, who runs the Jakarta-based
security consultancy Risk Management Advisory. "That's asking a
lot of the Acehnese people and the military."
The last accord collapsed in 2003 after the warring factions
accused each other of violations, he said, and there have been
several complaints in the last week about rebels coming down from
the mountains to demand "taxes" from village chiefs, civil
servants and others.
"It will be interesting to see if the government files an
official complaint," he said, and whether that will trigger a
repeat of what happened last time around. "It's still early in
the game."
Efforts to end the conflict in Aceh picked up speed after the
Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami struck the area, killing 131,000
people in Aceh and leaving a 500,000 others homeless. Neither
side wanted to add to people's suffering or to hold up the flow
of aid to victims.
During several months of negotiations, the rebels gave up
their long-held demand for independence and the government agreed
to give the region limited self-government and allow former
insurgents to form a political party.
Several thousand troops pulled out of Aceh even before rebels
handed over their weapons, but the official withdrawal began
Sunday with 800 soldiers leaving port.