[There are hopes of an end to hostilities in one of Southeast Asia's longest running wars. The Indonesian government and international mediators say they will sign a deal with separatist rebels in the province of Aceh on December 9, after the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. The Free Aceh Movement has been waging an armed struggle for an independent state since 1976 in a conflict that is thought to have claimed some ten thousand lives. However, rebel forces have not confirmed the signing date and crucial details of the peace deal are still to be negotiated.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Mares

Speakers: William Dowell, spokesman Henri Dunant Centre; Dr Ed Aspinall, Australian National University

Mares: The apparent breakthrough in negotiations between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement has been achieved by the patient work of the Henri Dunant Centre, a Geneva-based, non-government organisation that specialises in conflict resolution.

The Henri Dunant Centre has been mediating between the two sides for more than two years. It is now so confident of a deal to halt hostilities that it has sent a small advance team of international staff to Aceh, to prepare the ground for the creation of a 150-member ceasefire monitoring committee.

William Dowell is the Centre's official spokesman in Aceh. He admits that some details of the "cessation of hostilties" agreement are yet to be worked out:

Dowell: Most of the points of the agreement have been reached. There are a few areas that still need clarification but in principle both sides have agreed that they will sign and we're planning on having the signing on December 9 at this point. Many things could come up to delay it but at this point the plan is to do it on December 9.

Mares: The leadership of the Free Aceh Movement is based in Sweden, and goes under the official name of the Acheh-Sumatra National Liberation Front. A statement on its official website describes recent talks as 'fruitful' but does not commit to signing a peace deal on December 9. Instead, the statement says the movement's negotiators will meet with international mediators on that day to determine whether outstanding questions have been resolved and set a definite date for the signing.

However, William Dowell says the Henri Dunant Centre is proceeding on the basis that the signing will go ahead:

Dowell: There are many different opinions within each of the parties and what we are going through now is kind of a process of trying to digest the idea of going ahead and signing on December 9 and trying to get everybody on the same wavelength. So at this point it's really both sides are trying to line up their own forces and make sure everybody is reading from the same program.

Mares: Indonesia's security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told reporters in Jakarta that there was still disagreement between the government and the Free Aceh Movement on two points, the mechanism for disarmament and the role of the police and army will under a ceasefire.

Dr Ed Aspinall is a research fellow at the Australian National University who specialises on Aceh. He is encouraged by talk of a deal to end hostilities, but remains cautious.

Aspinall: Previous experience should caution us to be rather careful when viewing the progress of these peace talks. They have been dragging on now for getting on towards three years. There was an earlier agreement of course in 2000 which was honoured much more in the breach than in anything else, so we need to still be cautious. But yes, it is certainly a better sign than we've had for a long period, we can say that at least.

Mares: The Indonesian government says the deal with the Free Aceh Movement is based on acceptance of the special autonomy package for Aceh that was passed into law last year. But Ed Aspinall says there is no sign that the Free Aceh Movement is willing to give up its long term aim of an independent state.

Aspinall: What they have said in the past however is that they would accept the special autonomy law as an entry point into further negotiations. There's never been any very clear statement of their position. But what they seem to have in mind is that they would accept the autonomy law as a kind of interim position so long as they could be guaranteed means to continue to struggle for Acehnese indepedence through other means, that is peacefully, through the ballot box and so on. So there is a really very major problem there because we have had repeated statements from the Indonesian side, in particular many of the hardliners associated not only with the Indonesian military but in the national parliament and so on, suggesting that peace is only viable if the Free Aceh Movement accepts the autonomy law full stop. By which they mean, accepts that Aceh will always remain part of Indonesia.

Mares: Under the draft peace proposal released by Henri Dunant Centre the cessation of hostilities will be followed by "a free and fair election process, designed to ensure the broadest participation of all elements of Acehnese society." But, as Ed Aspinall explains, this could present further problems: ASPINALL: For that to occur there would be have to be amendments, not only to the autonomy law but also to Indonesia's election laws. As it stands political parties that can participate in elections in Indonesia have to be essentially national. They have to be represented in a large proportion of provinces throughout the country, so as it stands a Free Aceh Party for instance would not be able to register simply within Aceh. Now the problem is for those laws to be amended, the only body which can amend them of course is the national parliament.

Mares: But any elections that were held that did not involve the Free Aceh Movement would fail to resolve the tensions in the province.

Aspinall: That's right. It would simply dramatise that an important body of opinion and in fact the main armed group in Aceh remain excluded from the political process.The key to success will be somehow involving that large body of Achenese, who still have the goal of an independent Aceh at some point.