AFP prepares to send 8-man peacekeeping team to Aceh

An advance team of military observers prepared to leave for Indonesia’s Aceh province yesterday to monitor a peace accord between government troops and separatist rebels.

The eight-man team is the first of 25 military observers from the Philippines who will join a multinational force of 150 peace monitors in the troubled province, where a peace deal recently brought an end to a 26-year civil war.

The Philippine contingent is headed by army Brig. Gen. Nagomora Lomodag, a Muslim officer and deputy commander of the army’s northern Luzon command, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes said in a statement.

Reyes bid farewell to the officers at the military headquarters at Manila’s Camp Aguinaldo, and their departure was scheduled for later yesterday. The defense chief added the Philippine contingent will be given allowances by the United Nations.

Lomodag, from Marawi City, said the team and the succeeding batches that will form part of the international group monitoring the peace accord have been trained for the task.

"There could be danger but we are trained to do our thing and we are prepared," Lomodag said. The remaining batch of officials will be leaving in January.

The 150 peace monitors, led by Thai Maj. Gen. Tanongsuk Tuvinunincluding, will check for violations and verify that rebels have handed over their weapons for storage at designated areas.

They include 50 representatives each from the government and the Free Aceh Movement rebels. The remaining 50 will be foreigners, including military officers from the Philippines and Thailand.

They will monitor the situation in the troubled province, investigate security violations and report on their findings.

The Dec. 9 peace deal calls for an immediate end to hostilities and grants the oil- and gas-rich region autonomy, but not independence from Indonesia. The agreement also calls on the rebels to disarm and separatist parties to take part in legislative elections in 2004. — Paolo Romero