Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – Tuesday's peace accord signed between the Indonesian government and Acehnese rebels is not the first attempt at peace, but many Acehnese who are gathering and praying together, many in tears, after hearing news of the pact hope it will be the last.

For many, the December 9 agreement signed in Geneva, consisting of nine articles, is the beginning of the end for the 26 year old separatist conflict between Jakarta and the restive Indonesian province that has claimed over 10,000 Acehnese lives.

It is the first peace accord to involve an international monitoring presence, a factor that many hope raises the chances of its success.

Villagers in Aceh, the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra island, welcomed with joy news of the accord that allows autonomy and elections in 2004 for a government, which would be allowed to keep up to 70 percent of the province's oil and gas revenues.

"They strongly hope for the quick implementation of the agreement from both sides so that there will be no more troops or gunfights in the village from now on," Juanda, a member of Acehnese Civil Society Task Force in the capital, Banda Aceh, who uses one name. "What they want is to get back to their normal life without fear for violence as before."

But the optimism in the wake of the agreement, brokered by the Switzerland-based Henry Dunant Center, is also tempered with pragmatism.

"Acehnese are very happy with the agreement, but we are also aware that there is a difficult job ahead," said Hasballah Saad, an Acehnese member of the Indonesian Human Rights Commission and a former human-rights minister.

On Tuesday, activists in Aceh met to analyze the nine points in the agreement, which began with a ceasefire.

"The atmosphere that we see here is a transformation period from armed conflict to a non-violence atmosphere," said Juanda. "The first thing civil society here want to see is an atmosphere in which people are free to express their opinions without fear."

For many in Banda Aceh, who have lived through a tense atmosphere as rebels and soldiers fought each other, a period marked by kidnapping, torture and murder, the first dividend of the peace accord should be security in their daily lives.

Just a few days before the peace agreement was signed, a student leader in Banda Aceh was kidnapped and killed by a group of unknown men. Such an atmosphere had weakened people's participation in conflict solving process.

The Free Aceh Movement separatist rebels, formally known by their Indonesian acronym GAM, have been fighting for an independent state since 1976, chafing under Jakarta's siphoning off of huge revenues from its oil and gas resources and rights violations by the military in its efforts to quell the secessionist movement.

The content of the agreement shows that both Jakarta and GAM have softened their earlier stances, which had driven the peace process to a near deadlock a few months ago.

One of the nine points is an agreement on both sides to accept the Jakarta-proposed Special Autonomy Law as a starting point. GAM has not shown their clear acceptance of the law as it goes against its stand for Aceh's independence from Indonesia. The agreement, however, provides a chance for the review of the law to accommodate people's aspirations after the elections set for 2004 in Aceh.

For its part, Jakarta, which had insisted that the Aceh conflict was a domestic one and rejected any foreign interference in it, for the first time allowed a foreign monitoring team in the province.

The Geneva agreement provides for the activation of a Joint Monitoring Force Command comprising 150 soldiers from the Indonesian army, local Aceh forces, the Philippines and Thailand, starting this Sunday. The team, to be headed by a senior Thai military official, will be supervised by the Henry Dunant Center. The first 12 international peace monitors from the center arrived in Aceh on Wednesday.

To prevent armed clashes, troops from both sides, especially the much-feared Indonesian Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob), are to relocate to defensive positions during the two-month grace period. No additional troops will be allowed during this period.

Both sides agreed to demilitarize certain areas and to determine a peace zone in two months. GAM also agreed to place its weapons in cantonment sites under international supervision. GAM, Jakarta and the Henry Dunant Center will form a joint council to resolve disputes arising from the implementation of the agreement. The center will also facilitate an all-inclusive dialogue on the future of Aceh.

Serious international pressure on Indonesia to end the Aceh conflict helped lead to this week's agreement, and will provide incentives for staying on the peace track.

Prior to the Geneva meeting, the first-ever multi-government conference on Aceh was held in Tokyo on December 3. There, representatives from 23 countries plus international financial institutions such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank gave pledges of financial support for the reconstruction of Aceh.

Meantime, Hasballah said many details in the agreement must be ironed out. "Decisions to allocate reconciliation funds from abroad should not be done by the government only. Instead it should be done from Aceh through a committee established there," he said. "This is to guarantee transparency."

The Geneva agreement also does not make clear how past human-rights abuses will be handled. It only states that it could lead to compensation and investigation of abuses since 1976, the start of the conflict. Both Hasballah and Juanda said this is among the most important issues that need to be resolved in the near future.

History is not encouraging on this point. The Jakarta government has attempted to suppress reports of human-rights abuses by its military and pro-Jakarta militias. The September arrests of two Western women, including an Asia Times Online contributor, have been linked by some to the official effort to cover up the truth.

Lesley McCulloch, a Scottish-born academic who had been researching the Acehnese conflict, and Joy Lee Sadler, an American nurse who was working with refugees in Aceh, were put on trial last week in Banda Aceh. The trial has been adjourned to December 19. They were charged with the relatively minor offense of violating their tourist visa, but instead of being deported – normally the most severe punishment – they were held for trial, and have been told they face up to five years in jail.

Juanda cited the need for a human-rights tribunal for Aceh, while Hasballah proposed a study on different approaches in countries such as South Africa or South Korea to reach closure after conflict.

"Bringing the suspects to court is not the only way to deal with the problem," Hasballah said.