Indonesia rebels surrender first batch of weapons

Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s Aceh province handed over their first batch of weapons today, a key part of a recent peace deal that has brought hope to the tsunami-ravaged region.

Rebel commanders laid a grenade launcher and several bags containing automatic weapons on the ground at a park in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh. The handover was witnessed by international monitors overseeing the deal signed last month in Finland.

The monitors were scheduled to inspect, register and cut each firearm into three parts later today.

The accord is seen as the best chance the region has had in years to end a three-decade civil war that claimed 15,000 lives.

Under its terms, the rebels must hand over a quarter of their 840 firearms to the international monitors by Saturday and the remainder by the year’s end.

In the days that follow, the military will pull out nearly 7,000 of 32,000 soldiers and police slated to leave the province on Sumatra island’s northern tip. Another 25,000 will stay behind.

But analysts warn many things can go wrong during the delicate phase of demobilisation and disarmament.

“The key issue is how to deal with the spoilers of peace,” said Riazal Sukma, a political analyst and member of the private Aceh Recovery Forum.

“It only takes one platoon captain or rebel commander to violate the deal - and then everything goes down the drain.”

Efforts to end the 29-year civil war picked up pace after the December 26 tsunami crashed into coastlines, killing 131,000 people in Aceh and leaving half a million more homeless.

The Free Aceh Movement rebels and the Indonesian government returned to the negotiating table saying they did not want to add to people’s suffering and hammered out an agreement that satisfied both sides.

More than 220 European and south-east Asian international monitors have been deployed across the region to oversee the process.