Aceh Peace Monitors Get First Look at Troubled Countryside
Six foreign monitors who will join a proposed joint security team made the journey to this capital of Pidie district, 112 kilometers (69 miles) east of the capital, Banda Aceh.
Their journey comes after more than 1,000 Indonesian troops tightened their siege of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels southwest of Lhokseumawe city, which is further east of Pidie.
Despite the siege which has lasted more than two weeks, international mediators said Friday the two sides are close to a deal to end the decades-long war that human rights groups say has claimed more than 1,200 civilian lives this year.
Early this year government forces in Pidie district killed GAM's top military commander.
The foreign monitors, some of whom were soldiers in their own countries, are working with Geneva-based mediation group the Henry Dunant Center (HDC). They began arriving in Aceh this week.
In Sigli they were to meet local government and civic leaders in what is expected to be the first of a series of orientation visits to Aceh's districts as the monitors set up facilities and logistical support in anticipation of an agreement. Peace monitors will spread throughout Aceh as soon as the agreement on cessation of hostilities is signed.
HDC spokesman Bill Dowell told a press conference Friday that an agreement is near and that the differences between the two sides are very small.
The government hopes to sign the "cessation of hostilities" agreement on November 23. GAM has said they want to wait until after the Ramazan Islamic holy month which ends around December 6.
The peace proposal calls for an immediate end to hostilities. It says both sides, along with the HDC, will form a 150-member joint committee to monitor security, investigate violations and take appropriate action including prearranged sanctions to restore calm when violations occur.
Some 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed since GAM began its independence struggle on the northern tip of Sumatra island in 1976.