http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4567726.stm

Indonesia's withdrawal of troops from Aceh province has been welcomed as a important step towards a lasting peace.

The pull-out was the final military move in a peace deal agreed with rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (Gam) aimed at ending 26 years of bitter conflict.

The chief international mediator behind the peace process, Maarti Ahtisaari, told the BBC he was impressed by the good faith shown by both sides.

Indonesia's media also widely commends what it calls a "new phase" for peace.

The peace deal finally came together following the tsunami a year ago, which devastated large parts of the province.

This is good news indeed. Funny how even such a terrible thing as the tsunami can bring some good in the end. :)

Mark

yea its amazing. disasters have a way of doing that, sometimes. greece/turkye stopped beeing enemies afer 2 earthquakes as well, and even india/pakistan made some progress after the recent earthquake.

I spent 1964-1965 in Aceh with the Peace Corps. They are very independent minded, and resent Javanese govt. presence. I hope the cease fire holds, but I don't trust the central govt. Both sides are to be praised for putting rebuilding ahead of civil war, but unfortunately much of the money for rebuilding will go to corrupt officials, whether they be Acehnese or Javanese.
Keep in mind also that the Acehnese are strict Muslims compared to other provinces. From what I see head scarves are back - they were rare in the cities in my day - but we'll have to see whether their young men will feel the pull of Jihad!

thats true. lets hope democracy holds there, then things can change for teh better slowly, its normal that after a civil war people are quite radical in tehir thinking, but things will mellow out again.