The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) handed over 109 pieces of their guns to the Aceh Monitoring Team (AMM) in the province of Aceh on Friday, the second day of disarmament, a minister said.

The quantity and quality of the weapons were higher than those collected Thursday, but still there were some out of standard, Indonesian Minister of Information Soyan Djalil said. The GAM members handed over 78 weapons on Thursday to the AMM.

"It is good, right now it has been handed over 109 guns, most of them are in standard, the quality of the weapons is better ... compared (to those handed) yesterday" Sofyan told Xinhua in telephone from the location of weapons handover in Bireun regency.

"This shows a seriousness of the GAM to settle the problem," he added.

The minister expressed his optimism that the target of decommissioning 25 percent of the rebels' weapon could be achieved at the first phase of disarmament.

Right after the rebels complete the first phase, Indonesian armed forces will withdraw two battalions from the province, spokesman of the Iskandar Muda Military command covering Aceh province Let. Colonel Ahmad Husein said.

"The armed forces will pull out one battalion on September 18 and another battalion will follow up on September 21, according to our commitment to the peace accord," he told Xinhua by telephone from the province.

Political expert from the Center for Strategy and International Study TJ. Kristiadi commented that the two sides have started the trust-building, as the rebels and the government troops have showed their intention to implement the agreement signed on Aug. 15 in Helsinki.

"Now I think the trust building has started to grow," he told Xinhua.

The Indonesian government and the rebels signed a peace pact on Aug. 15 in Helsinki, Finland, in an effort to end a three-decade bloody conflict that has claimed over 15,000 lives, most of them civilians.

Over 220,000 Acehnese were killed in Dec. 26 tsunami disaster last year. The two sides agreed to bring their dispute to a negotiation table following the catastrophe.

Aceh, with abundant natural resources, is a devoutly Muslim province of 4 million people with a long history of revolt against central authorities. One of the issue of the conflict is about the split of the revenue from the natural gas production.

Source: Xinhua