Life appears to be returning to normal in Aceh, a week after an historic peace deal was signed in Geneva.
Previous deals between the Indonesian government and separtists from the troubled province at the northern tip of Sumatra have failed.
But this time there's been significant international involvement in the mediation process, with the first batch of international monitors arriving in Aceh as soon as the deal was signed. Kevin McQuillan compiled this report.
The Geneva talks involved Indonesia's local military chief General Djali Yusuf and his separatist counterpart, the Libyan-trained Muzakkir Manan from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
"During the talks, we both stated our commitment to restrain our respective soldiers so that they do not engage in offensive actions on the field," says General Yusuf.
"If there are any anomalies, we will contact each other." Possibly the last act in this part of the war saw 20,000 Indonesian troops and around 15,000 police paramilitaries try to set up another pitched battle against the GAM near the town of Cot Trieng, only for the enemy to once again dwindle away.
Not surprisingly given those tactics, the casualties have been worn by non-combatants – in one of the region's dirtiest wars where rape, torture, extrajudicial killings and disappearances have become part of normal life.
Calm returns to everyday life
General Yusuf confirmed all but 100 soldiers have been pulled out of the Cot Trieng area, but they would stay to help with village projects.
In signs that life is returning to normal, many residents are out on the streets of the provincial capital, and travellers say road blocks previously mounted by security forces or rebels had vanished from main roads.
President Megawati Sukarnoputri is expected to visit Aceh this week, her third visit since becoming president.
Since the separatist war began in 1976, an estimated 10,000 Acehnese have been killed – mainly civilians – out of a population of just over four million. This year alone, nearly 1,500 people have been killed.
Civilian opposition forced peace deal
According to Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group in Jakarta, it was the price that the civilian population had paid that made the GAM rebels realise their military campaign was in danger of becoming almost as despised as the Indonesian security force's attempts to suppress it.
"Most Acehnese I have spoken with are incredibly tired of this war," says Ms Jones, "and they want it finished and they feel threatened and intimidated not just by the Army but by both sides now." The deal allows for an election in Aceh in 2004, with the GAM separatists for now basing their approach on Indonesia's offers of autonomy rather than independence.
The Indonesian forces will move to defensive positions almost immediately.
Keeping the peace will eventually be a full complement of 150 peace monitors – one-third from overseas, one-third from the Indonesian military and one-third from the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM.
Keeping the peace
A joint security committee, comprising Indonesian and GAM officials and representatives of the Geneva-based Henri Dunant Centre (HDC), which played a mediation role, will keep the peace while talks proceed on the future of Aceh.
"The cessation of hostilities involved the cantonment or the placement or the storing of weapons at some stage," says Wiroyono Sastrohandojo, Indonesia's chief government negotiator in the Aceh peace process "At the end of two months then we can start storing the weapons," says Sastrohandojo. Only HDC and GAM officials will have keys to the arms dumps.
But with 22,000 Indonesian troops and 15,000 special paramilitary forces in Aceh, GAM's 2,000 fighters are heavily outnumbered.
The document doesn't spell out a timetable for the key issue of disarming the rebels, even though agreements are said to have been reached on the side.
Precarious deal
Sidney Jones says the deal is precarious at best. "There are a lot of people within GAM who still believe weapons are their only bargaining chip and if they give those weapons up they have nothing left. So there is resistance within GAM," she says.
"There is resistance within the Army as well because they believed, up until the last minute, that there was a possibility they would be able to finish this once and for all, militarily. "That means that there is a likelihood, not just a possibility but a likelihood, that people within both camps will try to sabotage this agreement," she says.
"Well you read the documents," says Sastrohandojo, " you will see that there is a quid pro quo agreed by both sides. And now of course the challenge is how to implement it. But if you see the situation in Aceh now, the people of Aceh are very enthusiastic, very happy, they are doing all kinds of thanks giving praise all over Aceh.
"And we hope that this will encourage both sides, both the government as well as the Free Aceh Movement to stick to the implementation, to strictly implement the agreement. That's the challenge and we must understand that the people welcome it."
Standing by the deal
Sastrohandojo says General Yusef has instructed his troops "and we are going to have a good compliance by the Indonesian side and we hope that the other side will also be doing the same thing."
While GAM has not given up its ambition of a free and independent state of Aceh, it has accepted the laws currently in place.
Sastrohandojo says there will be more talks before the proposed election in 2004. "So this is reformasi consistent," he says. "We want to settle the problems not by guns, by shooting, but by electoral ballots you see.
"So I think we need understanding and support from our neighbours including Australia. The return of Indonesia to a stable prosperous nation is in the interests of not only Indonesians of Acehanese, but also the region and of the world."