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Monday, 9 December, 2002, 12:20 GMT
Aceh peace deal signed
![]() Thousands of Indonesian troops are stationed in Aceh
The Indonesian Government and separatist rebels in troubled Aceh province have signed a peace deal which could end almost three decades of fighting.
The deal gives autonomy and free elections to Aceh - which lies at the northern tip of the island of Sumatra - in exchange for the rebels disarming.
They say the deal represents the best chance the two sides have had to settle their 26-year conflict, which has left about 10,000 people dead. But a BBC correspondent in Geneva says that, with fighting still continuing in Aceh almost daily, there are doubts the peace agreement will hold on the ground. Muted reaction In Aceh itself, there have been few signs of celebration. Most people in the mainly Muslim province are paying more attention to observing the Eid al-Fitr festival than the peace pact, Reuters news agency reports.
"(Signing) the peace pact fully depends on the outcome of the dialogue beforehand," a spokesman for the separatist Free Aceh Movement (Gam) said last week. Under the terms of the agreement, the rebels are supposed to give up their weapons and place them in designated sites.
After years of brutal conflict and a catalogue of human rights abuses, the level of mistrust on both sides is impossible to over-estimate, says a BBC correspondent in Jakarta. But both sides stand to gain from the agreement. Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has made solving the Aceh problem one of her top priorities, and if she succeeds it could significantly boost her chances of re-election in two years' time. For the rebels, the deal falls short of full independence, but offers the chance of free elections for a provincial government in 2004 - a government which will be allowed to keep up to 70% of Aceh's substantial oil and gas revenues.
US pressure European negotiators have worked for two years to bring about the current peace deal. But the Indonesian Government has also been under pressure from Washington - which wants Indonesia to concentrate on the war against terrorism. A group of international figures, who have been helping to negotiate the accord, will be present for Monday's signing. They include retired US General Anthony Zinni, former Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan, and Budimir Loncar, Yugoslavia's last foreign minister at the time of the country's break-up in 1992.
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