Indonesian military, police begin reducing forces in Aceh

The Indonesian military began withdrawing its troops from Aceh to comply with the truce signed by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the commander said Tuesday.

Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief General Endriartono Sutarto said two platoons of strike unit, whose main task is hunting down GAM members, will leave Aceh soon before GAM disarms itself.

"The pullout that precedes GAM disarmament reflects TNI's seriousness in complying with the truce between the Indonesian government and GAM," Sutarto said when visiting a military barrack in Aceh Besar.

He said the TNI would comply with the truce by halving the troop force to around 14,000.

Under the truce, which was signed in Helsinki Monday, the GAM must hand their weapons to the Aceh Monitoring Mission comprising some 200 unarmed personnel from the European Union and five ASEAN countries.

Separately in Jakarta, National Police Chief Sutanto announced that some 1,300 officers will be withdrawn from Aceh in the near future, bringing the total number of pullout to 2,000 recently.

"The pullout is implemented in stages until the end of December," he said.

Under the Helsinki agreement, Indonesia must halve its troop size to 14,700 and cut its police force to 9,100.

Source: Xinhua