Indonesia withdraws three battalions of troops from Aceh

Indonesian military has pulled out three battalions of troops from rebellious province of Aceh as part of its commitment to the peace deal between the Indonesian government and Aceh rebel signed on August 15 in Helsinki, Finland, a military commander said here Thursday.

Military Commander General Endriartono Sutarto disclosed that the military pulled out one battalion of marine one week before the signing of the peace pacts and two battalions of army one week after the signing.

"We did it ahead of determined time. We only want to show our commitment that we are seriously comply with the agreement," he said.

The general reaffirmed that the separatist Free Aceh Movement ( GAM) should do the same acts.

The agreement stipulated that the withdrawal of the government troops from the tsunami-hit Aceh province should be conducted one month after the signing along with decommissioning rebel's weapons.

The general said that some 14,700 government organic troops would gradually leave the province by the end of December 31.

The troops would not be deployed to other places in Indonesia, especially to the rebellious province of Papua, he said.

The agreement says that the rebel will start to hand in its weapons, which is monitored by the Aceh Monitoring Mission, on September 15.

According to the general, the rebel's leader is carrying out a consolidation on its organization and counting the number of its weapons.

Source: Xinhua