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| Sunday, 11 September 2005 |
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Agreement signed to solve the Aceh issue BRUSSELS, Sept 10 (AFP) - The European Union gave the official go-ahead on Friday to a groundbreaking mission to collect arms and monitor a peace deal ending 30 years of civil war in the separatist Indonesian province of Aceh. The operational phase of the mission involving the EU and five Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries - Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand - would begin as scheduled on September 15, the EU said in a statement. The Indonesian government and separatists of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a peace agreement on August 15 to end the conflict in the staunchly Muslim province which has cost about 15,000 lives since rebels took up arms in 1976. The six-month Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) involves 227 unarmed civilian observers who will supervise the disarming and disbanding of about 3,000 Free Aceh Movement (GAM) fighters and the withdrawal of the bulk of the Indonesian armed forces. About 50 experts led by Dutchman Pieter Feith, 60, who served as a NATO mediator in the Balkans from 1995 to 2001, have been in Aceh since the truce was signed in August to reassure the population and prevent a power vacuum developing. The AMM, which also involves Norway and Sweden, has already established nine of its 11 offices planned for the province. About 160 other observers began arriving in the province on Thursday and
are to be briefed on the background of the peace deal and local customs
before starting their duties in earnest next week. |
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