Indonesia: Hundreds of Indonesian marines leave Aceh

Jakarta (dpa)- Hundreds of Indonesian marines left Aceh on Saturday in the first troop reduction since rebels and government negotiators reached a draft peace agreement.

Military officials said there were no plans to replace the battalion of 654 marines, which left after completing a 13-month tour of duty in the tsunami-ravage province.

"We are waiting for the agreement to be signed on the 15th,'' Colonel Yani Basuki, spokesman for the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "We'll see what happens after that.''

Military officials said the battalion had killed some 42 rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) while stationed in the province.

Jakarta has stationed some 30,000 forces in Aceh since the Indonesian military declared martial law in 2003. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered the military to halt its offensive while the government and rebel negotiators work on cementing the peace accord.

Indonesia and GAM are scheduled to sign an official peace agreement on August 15 in Finland that would pave the way for the official withdrawal of Indonesian troops and disarmament of rebel fighters.

The last peace deal collapsed in May 2003 after Jakarta arrested rebel negotiators and militias attacked peace monitors in Aceh, forcing them to abandon the province and prompting the government to launch a major military offensive aimed at crushing the rebels.

Jakarta and the Aceh rebels agreed to restart negotiations in the wake of the tsunami, which left about 170,000 people dead or missing in Indonesia, mostly in Aceh. The return to talks was aimed at smoothing the way for reconstruction of the devastated province.

In the days after the tsunami, both sides unofficially agreed to freeze operations, but the informal truce has been ignored by both sides, with the military claiming to have killed several hundred alleged rebels since the disaster struck.

GAM has been fighting for an independent state in Aceh, a resource-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra, since 1976. More than 12,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict. dpa dk eu tl