Peter Gelling – The Indonesian military on Sunday withdrew the last of a promised 6,000 troops from Aceh Province, completing the first phase of the peace accord signed by the government and a separatist rebel group last month.

About 200 soldiers left the town of Lhokseumawe by ship, leaving more than 20,000 Indonesian soldiers still to be withdrawn by the end of the year.

By Sunday, the rebels had turned in 25 percent of their weapons, fulfilling their obligation for the first of four phases of the peace accord signed in Helsinki, said Faye Belnis, a spokeswoman for the Aceh Monitoring Mission.

The minister of defense, Juwono Sudarsono, said the schedule for the departure of Indonesian forces with parallel disarmament of the rebels of the Free Aceh Movement was proceeding smoothly.

The reintegration of the rebels into everyday life in the tsunami-devastated province was also going well, he said. "We were expecting tension, but so far so good," Sudarsono said in a telephone interview. "Based on reports, the surprising thing is that the reintegration is being very well received by the people."

Nearly 15,000 Indonesian troops will remain permanently stationed in Aceh after Dec. 31, according to the terms of the accord.

Beneath the public good will, some senior officers in the Indonesian military have complained about the peace accord, saying it was far too generous to the rebels. Implicit in the criticisms by the officers is unhappiness with the policies of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a former general, who pushed hard for the signing of the agreement and its prompt implementation.

General Ryamizard Ryacudu, the army chief who was recently passed over by Yudhoyono for the top position as head of the armed forces, said recently that the Aceh accord represented a first step toward the disintegration of Indonesia.

Two former presidents of Indonesia, Megawati Sukarnoputri, and Abdurrahman Wahid, have also expressed opposition to the peace agreement. "There's a lot of deep distrust with the accord in the military," said Sidney Jones, the director of the regional office of the International Crisis Group in Jakarta. "The army believes that too much has been given away," he said.

Under the terms of the accord, the rebels dropped their goal of independence for Aceh. In return, the government agreed to grant the province some political autonomy. The Indonesian government also agreed to grant amnesty for political prisoners.

A group of 226 monitors from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is supervising the disarmament of the rebels and troop withdrawal.

Scattered through the province at 11 district offices, the civilian monitors have been accepting weapons from rebels who are then eligible to apply for two hectares, or five acres, of farmland or fishing supplies from a rehabilitation fund established by the peace agreement.

In the interview, Sudarsono said that the tsunami had proven to be a "blessing in disguise" because it forced both sides to be serious about a solution to the war. More than 9,000 people were killed in the fighting that began in 1976.

Ordinary civilians in Aceh say the evidence of peace can be felt in many ways. They now meet in coffee shops until late at night undisturbed by the threat of violence.