An Indonesian soldier has been killed by rebels in the province of Aceh, putting a five-week old ceasefire to the test. The Indonesian government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement signed a cessation of hostilities agreement in Geneva on December 9. Twenty one people have been killed in Aceh since the deal was struck. Despite these incidents, observers say the ceasefire has dramatically reduced the level of violence in the provice and brought a fundamental change in atmosphere.

Transcript:

Mares: Earlier this week a delegation of foreign diplomats travelled to Aceh to show their support for the peace process. At the end of the trip, United States Ambassador Ralph Boyce described the ceasefire agreement in Aceh as "a good start", but cautioned that lasting peace remains a distant prospect. It's an assessment shared by Sidney Jones, the Jakarta-based Director of the Indonesia Project for the International Crisis Group, who has just completed her own trip to assess the situation in Aceh:

Jones: It's rather extraordinary because, on the one hand, there is an incredible change in atmospherics (sic). From the day that agreement was signed on December 9, you have people staying out late at night, people using the major thoroughfares 24 hours a day. It's as though everyone in Aceh decided that peace was at hand and they decided that the security problems had vanished, when in fact a lot remains unresolved. And you look at the agreement and you talk to both sides and it's clear that the agreement papers over major differences, and deliberately so. It was more important to get an agreement on paper than to work out every little detail.

Mares: The December 9 cessation of hostilities agreement was brokered by the Swiss based non-government organisation, the Henri Dunant Centre. Under the deal, a Joint Security Committee has been set up to monitor and investigate breaches of the ceasefire. The committee comprises government representatives, members of the rebel Free Aceh Movement or GAM, and international mediators. Henri Dunant Centre spokesman in Aceh, Steve Daly, says that the Committee is working well and that violent incidents since December 9 do not constitute a threat to the ceasefire agreement itself:

Daly: Right now we are in a confidence-building period and the overall security situation in Aceh has been unbelievably improved and the numbers are incredibly dramatic. Since December 9, there have been 13 civilian deaths total in Aceh. That's down from an average of 87 civilian deaths per month for the previous nine months up to the signing of the agreement on December 9. So that in itself is quite dramatic. And adding to that, there have only been two civilian deaths in the last two weeks. I think everybody has expected that there would be continued incidents in isolated pockets and they are taking place. But no, I don't think it puts any significant strain on the basic agreement. Everything seems to be moving forward very well actually. And I would add to that that things are probably moving better and faster than anyone had expected.

Mares: What about the process of returning Aceh to some kind of normality, has progress also been made there in getting people back to their homes and so on?

Daly: Yes. Earlier this week our tripartite monitoring teams escorted 2,500 internally displaced Acehnese to their home villages. They had fled their villages a month ago fearing unknown security issues. Normalcy would be overstating the situation here. But, it is another sign that security has been greatly restored to Aceh.

Mares: Steve Daly from the Henri Dunant Centre in Aceh. Despite the evident progress, there are major obstacles to a lasting peace in Aceh. Sidney Jones from the International Crisis Group says there is a huge gulf between Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, on key issues.

Jones: There are completely, diametrically opposed interpretations of, for example, what the placement of arms means with respect to GAM, the Free Aceh Movement. Will GAM give up its arms? What have they agreed to do? Is it demilitarisation which is how the Indonesian government likes to think of it? Or is it simply registering weapons but not giving them up, which seems to be GAM's interpretation. Another big issue is the political end game and whether or not GAM will participate in elections. Elections to GAM means a referendum on the autonomy law. Elections to the Indonesian army means GAM will join a major political party just like any other Indonesian citizen.

Mares: And hold elections for a provincial assembly within the Indonesian republic.

Jones: Yes. And then a third major sticking point is on the issue of relocation of the army because the army sees itself as basically keeping its positions as is, but changing to a defensive posture. The rebels and many Achenese see relocation as meaning pulling back to barracks and there is a wide gap between those two.

Mares: Sidney Jones says the best chance for long term peace is the pressure coming from the people of Aceh who are desperate to see an end to violence:

Jones: There is a chance that that popular pressure could actually push the issue to the point where both sides might be more willing to compromise than they would have been before December 9.