Peace on the archipelago?

Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation, has struggled to keep from fracturing along ethnic, religious and geographic lines since it gained independence from the Dutch 60 years ago. The northern province of Aceh has long been a stubborn problem, fighting a guerrilla war for independence for the last 29 years.

Now peace may be at hand. Negotiators reached a pact last weekend in Finland. It has a real chance for success, but it will take commitment from rebels and the government to turn promises in Scandinavia into reality in Southeast Asia.

The accord essentially requires the rebels in Aceh to disband and the national government to withdraw most of its troops. The rebels yielded on their demand for independence, and the government on its requirement that political parties in the upcoming provincial elections be national rather than local. The hope is that members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement will take part in the elections next year that are to be monitored by the European Union.

The formal peace agreement is supposed to be signed Aug. 15. If it sticks -- an Indonesian newspaper reported soldiers shot and killed five rebels in Aceh the day the new accord was reached -- it will be a tribute to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. His ingenuity in solving problems was also evident in the government’s response to the devastating tsunami in December that killed more than 125,000 in Aceh. The government suspended its law barring outsiders, allowing foreign relief workers into Aceh, and repealed emergency rule in the province.

Still, the agreement faces an uncertain future. Previous governments have failed to satisfy Aceh’s demands; in 1959, President Sukarno’s government granted the province “special territory” status, with autonomy in religion and education. Seventeen years later, the Free Aceh Movement was founded. To dissuade the guerrillas from further violence, Yudhoyono may have to be more generous in sharing the revenue from Aceh’s oil and natural gas reserves.

It would be costly, but the price of a war would be even higher. And if the rebels’ renunciation of independence is genuine rather than tactical, the people of Indonesia, and of Aceh, will reap the benefits.