1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000 Banda Aceh is at the northernmost point of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. 2 00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:12,000 The province of Aceh is 55,000 square kilometers, about twice as large as Belgium, with 4 million people. 3 00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:17,000 Even before the tsunami on December 26 last year, there was a state of emergency here. 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:24,000 For 30 years, the Free Aceh Movement, the GAM, had been waging an insurgency which was fiercely opposed by the Indonesian army. 5 00:00:24,000 --> 00:00:28,000 The tsunami did at least have the effect of opening up the area to the outside world, 6 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:34,000 and the EU quickly became by far the most generous donor in reconstruction of tsunami-affected areas. 7 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:40,000 Alongside aid, the European Union is also strongly committed to the process of re-establishing peace in the region. 8 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,000 It sent 230 monitors to Aceh. 9 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:53,000 Their job, to verify the implementation of measures mapped out in the peace agreement obtained in August 2005 by the former Finnish president, Martti Ahtisaari. 10 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:57,000 Everyone knows the monitors here. 11 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:02,000 They're known by the acronym for their mission, the AMM, the Aceh Monitoring Mission. 12 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:09,000 It's impossible to miss them in their white uniforms, a color to emphasize the entirely civil nature of their mission. 13 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:13,000 Today, one of the teams is going to the Mulabu region on the south coast of the island. 14 00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:19,000 They're supervising the handing over of weapons by GAM rebels as laid down in the peace agreement. 15 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:32,000 What we are doing really is to get in contact with the GAM personnel 16 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000 and decide on an area where we should collect the weapons. 17 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:42,000 We have made arrangements with the police and the TNI, which is the military, 18 00:01:42,000 --> 00:01:47,000 to safeguard the GAM personnel so they come in safely into the site. 19 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:50,000 It's a familiar routine by now. 20 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:54,000 The GAM fighters hand in their arms in the presence of their commander-in-chief, 21 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:00,000 a representative of the political branch of the movement, as well as someone from the government and the Indonesian army. 22 00:02:02,000 --> 00:02:08,000 If all the parties accept that it's in working order, the weapon is catalogued, then broken up and given to the army. 23 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:16,000 One idea circulating is to build a peace monument out of the weapons in the center of Aceh. 24 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:23,000 In return for this disarmament, the government is committed to withdrawing a certain number of troops and police from the Aceh province. 25 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:28,000 In this way, there are no winners, no losers. 26 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:33,000 The European monitors hope to preserve this delicate balance and restore trust between the parties. 27 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:37,000 I have seen the climate. I saw in the very beginning 28 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:45,000 very much frustrated people staring at each other and now they are smiling and joking. 29 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:50,000 So this process has been building up the confidence between the parties 30 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:56,000 and I'm convinced that at least they want to get rid of the arms in this area. 31 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:02,000 The AMM was deployed by the European Union mainly at the request of the warring parties themselves, 32 00:03:02,000 --> 00:03:05,000 looking for an impartial arbitrator. 33 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:17,000 I hope with the presence of the EU and AMM here, the peace process will survive. 34 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:19,000 We will be running smoothly. 35 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000 We don't have any problem with the gun soldiers here. 36 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000 They all accepted, although they were a little sad at the beginning. 37 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:35,000 So after explanations, they all accepted and we don't have any problem at all with them. 38 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:42,000 The event always attracts a big crowd, visibly relieved to see the end of hostilities, 39 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:45,000 particularly after having been devastated by the tsunami. 40 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:50,000 All the people here are very happy that peace has come. 41 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000 I'm happy, everyone's happy. 42 00:03:54,000 --> 00:03:58,000 It's good to be able to move around where we want to without any problems. 43 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:06,000 The tsunami changed the attitude of people in Artsea and they started to think in a different way. 44 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:12,000 Maybe they thought what has actually came within 30 years of war 45 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,000 and decided that now it's time to try to do something else. 46 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:21,000 This is the headquarters of the AMM back in Artsea. 47 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,000 The day's tally, several dozen weapons have been destroyed. 48 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:32,000 After Bosnia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Georgia or the Congo, 49 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:35,000 yet another peace mission launched by the European Union 50 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,000 within the framework of its security and defence policy. 51 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,000 But this is the first time it's been done in this part of the world. 52 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:48,000 But this is the first time it's been done in this part of the world and so far from Europe. 53 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,000 Despite the difficult conditions for the head of the mission, 54 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,000 one of the keys to success has been the speed of the intervention. 55 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:03,000 We started the presence there already on the day of the signature of the Helsinki Agreement. 56 00:05:03,000 --> 00:05:08,000 So what I'm saying is that there was no vacuum 57 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:13,000 in which the parties could again circumvent the commitments they had made 58 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:16,000 or the situation could destabilise. 59 00:05:16,000 --> 00:05:21,000 We were there at the right moment in a rapid response deployment 60 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:24,000 and I think that is something we have never done before. 61 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:27,000 Another reason for its success is the fact that the mission has been carried out 62 00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,000 in collaboration with five countries from ASEAN, 63 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:33,000 the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. 64 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Their contribution is very much that they are of course more acquainted 65 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,000 with the local culture, the local situation, local language. 66 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:44,000 So we are helping each other in this 67 00:05:44,000 --> 00:05:48,000 and this makes that the partnership is mutually reinforcing. 68 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,000 Next day it's off to Sigli on the northern coast. 69 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,000 The monitors are back at work. 70 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:03,000 On today's programme a consultation meeting between the army and the local GAM representatives. 71 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,000 But between meetings and the destruction of weapons, 72 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,000 the mobile AMM team spend a lot of time meeting local people 73 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,000 and local administrations in the more remote villages. 74 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:23,000 At each stop they listen, explain and explain again the details of the peace agreement, 75 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:28,000 known in their jargon as the MOU or Memorandum of Understanding. 76 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:36,000 The most important thing for us is that they read it and they understand it. 77 00:06:36,000 --> 00:06:39,000 Make them comfortable about the situation 78 00:06:39,000 --> 00:06:44,000 and give them a sort of belief in the future 79 00:06:44,000 --> 00:06:49,000 that this time it will work, they will have the peace. 80 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,000 Here the deputy mayor of the village admits his difficulties 81 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,000 in responding to all the questions from the people. 82 00:06:58,000 --> 00:07:03,000 A poster summarising the principal points of the memorandum will no doubt be very welcome. 83 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:09,000 Then it's the traditional stop off at the corner cafe 84 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,000 where the locals soon join in with the conversation. 85 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,000 It's clear that the presence of European monitors has an almost therapeutic quality, 86 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,000 helping people to put the years of mistrust and suspicion behind them. 87 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:29,000 Especially the last month they really expressed that there's a big difference 88 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,000 from before the MOU and now. 89 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:39,000 So it's our experience that people are believing this will end up in the right way. 90 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:46,000 The peace agreement satisfies several of the demands of the former separatists, 91 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:50,000 including a certain political and economic autonomy in the Aceh province. 92 00:07:51,000 --> 00:07:56,000 But more immediate than that is a chapter concerning respect for human rights and amnesty 93 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,000 and the reintegration of rebels and prisoners. 94 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:02,000 Members of the GAM don't like the term reintegration, 95 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,000 claiming that the fighters have always been integrated in the population. 96 00:08:06,000 --> 00:08:08,000 But even so these people must now return to normal life. 97 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:13,000 That's the case for this woman who was sent to prison for providing food for GAM rebels. 98 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,000 The monitors visit her to see if her return to the village is going well 99 00:08:19,000 --> 00:08:22,000 and to check that she's received the aid agreed in the peace agreements 100 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,000 for some 5,000 former rebels and prisoners. 101 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:32,000 It's a way to heal the social wounds following the troubles. 102 00:08:40,000 --> 00:08:44,000 Three days later it's D-Day for a new phase of the retreat of the Indonesian army, 103 00:08:44,000 --> 00:08:47,000 the deal agreed by Jakarta in return for the GAM disarmament. 104 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:53,000 The monitors go off to see for themselves the reality of this commitment. 105 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:03,000 And as is so often with the army, it all begins with a parade. 106 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Today's ceremony is at Kuengguku on the north coast. 107 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:11,000 2,000 men from the land force, their packs on their backs, are moving out. 108 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:17,000 Before the end of the year 25,000 soldiers will have left the Aceh territory 109 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,000 to bring back the military presence to normal levels, 110 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:23,000 in other words just under 15,000 men. 111 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:26,000 Until then all troop movements are forbidden 112 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:29,000 without previous notification to the European monitors. 113 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,000 The police must also reduce its numbers by around 5,000 officers. 114 00:09:41,000 --> 00:09:44,000 It would appear that everybody's happy with the outcome of the conflict. 115 00:09:45,000 --> 00:09:49,000 Apart from an exchange of fire between a former GAM member and soldiers, 116 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:51,000 during a weapons handover in October, 117 00:09:51,000 --> 00:09:53,000 no serious incident has upset the process. 118 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000 A sign of how much each side wants to achieve a lasting peace in Aceh. 119 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:08,000 But this is not quite the final picture. 120 00:10:09,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Now what we need to do is to make sure that the parties are comfortable with our departure. 121 00:10:14,000 --> 00:10:20,000 Now what we need to do is to make sure that the parties are comfortable with our departure on the 15th of March. 122 00:10:20,000 --> 00:10:24,000 And that the political process continues in Indonesia, 123 00:10:24,000 --> 00:10:28,000 that is that there will be changes in the legislation, new laws, 124 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:32,000 and that real content is given to the concept of autonomy 125 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:36,000 that was promised to the rebel movement in Helsinki. 126 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,000 Battered and bruised by 30 years of conflict and by an unprecedented natural disaster, 127 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:43,000 Aceh is now in convalescence. 128 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:47,000 It'll take several years to get back to normal life, but at least the process has begun. 129 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:53,000 A process the EU is part of, supporting the recovery from the tsunami and the peace process here.