Jakarta – Providing jobs, financial assistance and housing to thousands of former guerillas and political prisoners is essential for ensuring the success of the peace deal in Aceh, the World Bank said Monday.

"In following a peace agreement it matters what you do afterwards. If you want to do it right, then you have to understand combatants' needs for re-integration," said Andrew Steer, the bank's country director for Indonesia.

Three-quarters of the former combatants were unemployed, 90 percent needed funds to pay debts or support their families, and three-quarters lacked housing more than six months after a peace deal was signed, a World Bank study found.

The peace pact, signed in August, aims to end almost three decades of violence involving Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas and Indonesian troops and police.

Almost 80 percent of the 1,682 political prisoners, many of whom suffered harsh treatment during their imprisonment, suffered wounds or were disabled, said Patrick Barron, the study's author.

But unemployment among the former guerillas was the biggest threat to the peace deal, he said.

"There are risks of extortion and pressure on local communities in the longer run. There is a need to get people working," he said.

The government has allocated 200 billion rupiah (22.9 million dollars) to assist former combatants, political prisoners and victims of the violence, including one million rupiah for each combatant.

Under the peace pact, GAM agreed to drop its demand for independence in return for – among other concessions – the right to form local political parties, which are banned elsewhere in Indonesia to discourage separatism.