Aceh rebels begin handing in weapons

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Thursday (Reuters) - Former rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province began handing in their weapons to foreign monitors on Thursday under a landmark peace agreement that ended one of Asia's longest running conflicts.

The weapons handover is one of the most important elements of the accord, which was signed in Helsinki on Aug. 15. Some 15,000 people, mainly civilians, were killed in 30 years of war.

Members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) arrived at a field in the provincial capital Banda Aceh in a convoy of vehicles and promptly pulled out a range of automatic weapons and rifles from sacks. At least one grenade launcher was given up.

The European-led Aceh Monitoring Mission said 87 weapons would be handed in on Thursday and cut into pieces as part of the first stage of weapons decommissioning.

"I feel sad. It's like handing over my wife," said former GAM member Muzakir, 30, after handing in his rifle. "For me, she is like my wife because I sleep with her. I also am happy because I want to see Aceh like it was, at peace."

GAM members held up weapons to a crowd of 200 journalists before they handed them in. The guns were then checked for ammunition before being placed into electric saws to be cut up.

"This morning's decommissioning is one of the most important steps in the whole peace process," said Britain's ambassador to Indonesia, Charles Humfrey, representing the European Union.

The accord has raised hopes among Aceh's four million people - still suffering from last December's devastating tsunami - that they could finally live in peace.

But disputes over GAM disarmament have helped scuttle previous peace deals, the most recent in 2003.

"This is a test of trust building," said Kusnanto Anggoro, a prominent defence analyst in Jakarta.

GAM is expected to hand in 210 weapons during the next three days. It has said some 3,000 active rebels have 840 guns. The rest will be given up in three later stages before the end of the year.

Indonesia's government has said the military was comfortable with the number of weapons that GAM has stated as its arsenal.

Anggoro said he believed the number could be two to three times higher, possibly held by GAM splinter groups. Asked how sure the Aceh Monitoring Mission was of GAM's stated arsenal, mission spokesman Andre Cholz said: "I can only tell you the parties ... agreed on that number of weapons.

These are the figures we have to strictly rely on." Jakarta will withdraw 25 percent of its troop and police reinforcements roughly simultaneously over the four stages of the decommissioning, cutting security forces in Aceh in half.