The Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed in Helsinki on Monday morning the formal peace agreement, ending decades of conflicts in Indonesia's Aceh province and hostility between the two sides.

Indonesian Justice and Human Rights Minister Hamid Awaluddin, who represents the government, and Malik Mahmud, representative of the GAM, signed the pact at the Government Banquet Hall in Helsinki.

 
The pact, known as Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in its formal name, promulgates that "all acts of violence between the parties will end latest at the time of the signing of this MOU."

Under the agreement, Indonesian government will withdraw "non-organic military and police forces" from Aceh and facilitate the establishment of Aceh-based political parties.

The Free Aceh Movement promised to demobilize all of its 300 military troops. The decommissioning of GAM armaments will begin on Sept. 15 and concluded by Dec. 31 this year.

"Praise be to Allah by whose Grace, we are today to end the conflict that has caused so much sufferings for the Acehnese people, " said Mahmud.

"We now leave this historic day and embark on a great journey into a new and, we hope, much better future," Mahmud told the press.

The signing ceremony in Helsinki was transmitted live by video link to Jakarta, where it was witnessed by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

"We really hope and work hard to end the conflicts and make our country re-united," Yudhoyono said, pledging to work together with GAM "for the better future" of Aceh.

The agreement foresees also the promulgation of a new law for the governing of Aceh "no later than March 31, 2006," the granting of amnesty to GAM members and political prisoners "no later than within 15 days of the signature of this MOU."

The pact sets down several principles for the new law, in which Aceh even has the right to use regional symbols including "a flag, a crest and a hymn."

The people of Aceh will have the right to nominate candidates for the positions of all elected officials to contest the elections in Aceh in April 2006 and thereafter.

Former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who had initiated and monitored the negotiations, witnessed the signing process.

"The purpose of this peace process has been given a new start for the people of Aceh to live their lives in a peaceful, just and democratic society," he said.

The peace deal will help the people in the region get more economic autonomy and greater control over local revenue from oil and gas in the province.

Aceh accounts for 5.5 percent of Indonesia's gas reserves.

"Aceh has the right to set interest rates beyond that set by the Central Bank" of Indonesia, said the pact, and Aceh also has other rights such as retaining "seventy percent of the revenue from all current and future hydrocarbon deposits and other natural resources " in the region.

The pact also promulgates to establish an Aceh Monitoring Mission by the European Union and five ASEAN contributing countries to monitor the implementation of the agreement.

The European Union has already pledged to send 200 observers for the mission.

(Xinhua News Agency August 16, 2005)