Indonesian Rebels Give Up Weapons

Dozens of rebels in Aceh province emerged from hiding and handed over their weapons Thursday in a major step toward ending one of the world’s longest-running wars.

Riding into the center of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, the jungle fighters surrendered a rocket launcher, M-16 rifles, shotguns and homemade grenade launchers to international monitors, who cut the weapons into pieces on the spot.

The hand-over was the first test of the Free Aceh Movement guerrillas’ willingness to abide by the peace agreement signed a month ago by their exiled leaders and the Indonesian government in Helsinki, Finland.

“This is a monumental day for the better future of Aceh and the better future of Indonesia,” Irwandi Yusuf, a senior Free Aceh Movement representative, said after handing over the rocket launcher.

The rebel group had fought for 29 years to gain independence for Aceh, Indonesia’s northernmost province, on the tip of Sumatra island. But after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck the region Dec. 26 and killed about 200,000 people, the guerrillas dropped their demand for independence in exchange for amnesty and inclusion in the political process.

“I’m glad there will be peace in Aceh,” said Khaerul, a 27-year-old rebel, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. “I’m sure there will be peace here. As long as there are no more gunfights, I’m happy,” he said as he watched the surrender of the guns.

Other rebels said they were sad to see the weapons destroyed. One fighter who declined to give his name became teary and his lips trembled as he watched a rifle being cut into three pieces.

“I feel disappointed,” he said. “How can you witness your gun being handed over? We need the guns. We need the guns for revenge. It is horrible to see the guns being cut up.”

The agreement calls for the rebels to transfer 840 working weapons, a paltry number for a war that began in 1976 and claimed 15,000 lives.

Parliamentary critics of the deal contend that the movement, with 3,000 active fighters, must possess many more weapons. But based on intelligence reports of the rebels’ military strength, the government agreed that the hand-over would empty the group’s arsenal.

“One gun can be used by 20 people,” said rebel spokesman Sofyan Dawood. “So even though we have 3,000 soldiers, we only have 840 guns.”

The Free Aceh Movement, known by its Indonesian acronym GAM, has until Saturday to turn in the first 210 weapons. The army has pledged to withdraw two battalions with 1,200 soldiers if the rebels meet the deadline.

The weapons transfer and the troop withdrawal will continue over the next four months until the rebels are disarmed and the government has fewer than 25,000 soldiers and police in the province.

So far, the government has lived up to its part of the agreement, freeing more than 1,400 imprisoned rebels two weeks ago and withdrawing 1,300 police troops Wednesday.

Minor skirmishes between the two sides have been reported in recent weeks, but nothing serious enough to derail the peace process has occurred.

Maj. Gen. Supiadin, the Indonesian military commander in the province, said after witnessing the hand-over that he believed peace would prevail.

“I am proud, I am happy because GAM is fulfilling its promise,” he said. “We have to trust them now, though we should not forget the history. We have to believe their good intentions. We have given them our commitment.”

Implementation of the peace agreement is being supervised by 240 monitors from the European Union and neighboring Asian countries.

The monitors had expected to meet the rebels in the jungle outside Banda Aceh for the first hand-over. But at the last minute, the rebel leaders switched the location to a popular athletic field in the heart of the city, catching everyone by surprise.

The rebels arrived in cars with their weapons, followed by dozens of their comrades on motorcycles. The monitors accepted 78 weapons, along with 600 rounds of ammunition and several grenades. The rebels apparently had no rockets to go with their launcher.

Pieter Feith, a Dutch diplomat who heads the monitoring mission, was disappointed by the quality of some of the weapons. About a fifth of the guns did not meet the standard spelled out in the peace agreement, he said, because they could no longer be fired or could not be considered lethal.

“There were quite a few museum pieces,” said Feith, who served as a North Atlantic Treaty Organization mediator in the Balkans.

He encouraged the rebels to make sure they meet Saturday’s target to avoid delaying the next troop withdrawal.

“They knew from the beginning we would not accept junk,” he said. “If we don’t get 210 weapons, we have a problem.”

The Free Aceh Movement has long been a disciplined force, and Feith said he did not expect any rebels to break away and resume fighting. However, he said officials must keep a firm grip on local pro-government militias, whose members largely come from the country’s main island of Java, to ensure that they do not undermine the peace pact.

Negotiations to end the war began last year, but the tsunami accelerated the process. Both sides suffered huge losses in the catastrophe. Many hundreds of troops were washed out to sea in coastal areas, and fighters hiding in the mountains lost tens of thousands of relatives.

By giving up their insistence on independence, the rebels won the right to form local political parties, and Aceh will receive 70% of the revenue generated by its rich oil and gas reserves.

“We changed the definition of ‘independence’ to a new terminology,” said Yusuf, who escaped from the Banda Aceh jail when it was destroyed by the tsunami. “Independence within any country or independence without borders -- no matter. When we have dignity, when we have prosperity, when we have our own right to do this and that, that’s independence.”

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Times staff writer Dinda Jouhana of The Times’ Jakarta Bureau contributed to this report.