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Disarmament Boost Acehnese Peace
Hopes
for a lasting peace in Aceh received a boost on September
15 as former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists
handed over their first batch of weapons to international
monitors. Under a clear sky in a large field in Banda
Aceh, dozens of former rebels wearing jeans and T-shirts
presented bags of weapons to Aceh Monitoring Mission
(AMM) representatives. The 78 weapons in the bags
included AK-47 assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenade
launchers, and handguns. The 12 strong team of monitors
inspected each weapon and then fed them into a circular
saw, cutting them into pieces.
The arms are part of some 210 weapons scheduled to
be handed over to international monitors by September
17 as part of the Helsinki peace deal, while the remainder
of 630 will be handed over the year’s end. The
deal stipulates that in return, the government must,
within the next few weeks, pull out some 7,000 non-local
soldiers and police, out of a total 32,000 set to
leave the province. Another 25,000 will stay behind.
The peaceful disarmament proved that the government
and the Acehnese separatists were committed to making
the peace deal a success, AMM chief Pieter Feith remarked
after overseeing the handover. Feith said the AMM
had asked the GAM for the names of its 3,000 members,
so that monitors could ensure their rights were not
violated after they returned to their villages.
Observers hope the Helsinki peace deal will be the
opportunity for the GAM and the government to end
almost thirty years of conflict, which has claimed
more than 15,000 lives. Mistrust on both sides resulted
in the collapsed of two earlier deals reached in 2000
and 2002.
Under
the new agreement, the Acehnese separatists have agreed
to dissolve the GAM as a military organization and
drop its demand for independence. In return, the government
has promised an amnesty and full political rights
for the movement’s members, including those
released from political imprisonment. The government
is also in the process of withdrawing more than half
of the estimated 57,000 soldiers and police currently
stationed in the province of 4 million people.
The government has promised, as well, to provide former
GAM members with small plots of land and money, to
help them reintegrate into society.
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