The Indonesian armed forces on Friday rejected speeding up the second phase of handover of rebel's weapons in Aceh province.

According to the peace deal signed on Aug. 15, the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) must hand over their weapons on the second phase on Oct. 15.

Earlier, the rebels asked to accelerate the second phase of disarmament to the beginning of October, before the fasting month of Ramadhan, which will begin on Oct. 4.

"We do not want the handover conducted before Ramadhan, because there have been a well-planned scheduled and program about it," the armed forces Commander General Endriartono Sutarto was quoted by the Tempointeractive news service as saying.

He said that the armed forces would have change preparation of pulling out their troops, such as ships, as the consequence of the acceleration.

The peace deal stipulated that the disarmament will be followed by a withdrawal of the government troops from the province.

Source: Xinhua