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EU monitors arrive in Aceh, prep for peace process

Jakarta Post - July 31, 2005

Jakarta – Three members of the European Union peace monitoring team arrived in Aceh on Saturday, more than two weeks ahead of the scheduled arrival of the full peace mission.

The three monitors are Dutch national Pieter Feith, and Finns Jaakko Oksanen and Juha Christensen.

Antara reported that the monitors from the European Union, who arrived in Aceh from Jakarta, were picked up by officials driving a United Nations jeep at Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport.

The three men, who are expected to lay the groundwork for hundreds of other monitoring officials, are to visit Bireun, Lhokseumawe and Central Aceh. The three Europeans declined to provide any comment to reporters.

A 300-member peace mission is expected to arrive in Aceh after the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) officially sign a peace agreement on Aug. 15 in Helsinki, which it is hoped will end the three-decade-long conflict in the province.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the main tasks of the peace mission are to oversee the decommissioning of weapons that will be surrendered by GAM as well as the peaceful withdrawal of non-local Indonesian troops from Aceh.

It will also monitor compliance with the peace deal and define mechanisms for dispute settlement in case of violations. The details of the mission's work will be discussed during two days of discussions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs starting Monday.

The European Union (EU) will lead the monitoring mission, which will consist of military officers and civilians. About 200 monitors are expected to be provided by the EU.

Members of the team will also be provided by five contributing countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines.

The foreign monitors will serve for six months, with a further six months extension being possible.

The presence of the mission formed part of the preliminary peace deal signed by Indonesia and GAM on July 17 in Helsinki, Finland. The peace process was restarted after last year's tsunami.