Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – A peace deal signed in August last year by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) marked an end of three decades of conflict in Aceh, but it also marked the beginning of a crime wave in the province.

"Following the Helsinki peace deal, armed conflicts, kidnappings and the discovery of dead bodies did sharply decrease. But crimes like robbery, drug use and vehicle theft increased by up to 372 percent," Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen. Bahrumsyah Kasman said in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Thursday.

He said security disturbances like terrorism, armed conflict and kidnappings had fallen by 91 percent since the peace deal was signed.

The officer said the province did not have the police personnel to deal with the rise in the number of crimes being committed.

As stipulated in the peace deal, there are 9,100 police personnel in Aceh, Bahrumsyah said, but the province needs more than 15,000 officers.

The Aceh Police currently have some 3,000 police cadets, but they cannot be hired as full-time officers because it would violate the peace deal.

Bahrumsyah said the police were also being stretched thin because of their work enforcing the province's sharia law and providing security for reconstruction work following the 2004 tsunami. He added that officers would be asked to provide security for the upcoming gubernatorial election.

The police, he said, have deployed 2,217 officers to guard the offices and facilities of the Aceh-Nias Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency in 12 regencies and cities across the province. "We're trying to do what we can despite the limited personnel," Bahrumsyah said.