BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, December 10 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Indonesian troops and police joined hundreds of Acehnese in a tearful thanksgiving for peace Tuesday, December 10, after the government and separatist rebels signed an agreement to end the 26-year conflict.

The peace deal is aimed at ending one of the world’s longest and bloodiest armed conflicts that took the lives of some 12,000 people during the 26-year insurgency in Aceh, a Muslim province in northern Sumatra.

Some call it the “forgotten war” because it has received scant international attention compared with other conflicts such as East Timor, reported British daily The Independent.

The E.U. on Tuesday welcomed the signing of the truce deal between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels from Aceh province, saying “The European Union welcomes the signing of the framework agreement... following months of difficult negotiations.”

“The agreement brings hope that after more than 26 years of fighting the people of Aceh will now be able to embark on developing a democratic Aceh, based on the principles of human rights and rule of law,” said the statement from the Danish EU presidency, a day after the deal was signed in Geneva.

The accord, signed on the shore of Lake Geneva, Switzerland, provides for autonomy and free elections in exchange for the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels disarming. A ceasefire will be overseen by international monitors and, in a concession by Jakarta, provincial governments will be entitled to 70 per cent of profits from Aceh’s oil and gas reserves.

The Indonesian army said it would lift its month-long siege of a suspected rebel base, paramilitary police halted patrols and foreign monitors started arriving to try to ensure the ceasefire holds, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The GAM are “now our brothers and no longer our enemies,” armed forces chief General Endriartono Sutarto told more than 2,000 people at the thanksgiving prayer service at Lhokseumawe in North Aceh.

Aceh military commander Major General Djali Yusuf and hundreds of uniformed police and soldiers attended the ceremony, at which many wept.

Sutarto said the two sides could now swap their weapons for spades and hoes following the pact signed in Geneva Monday.

“This is really a blessing of God for the people of Aceh who have been suffering for decades,” Sutarto said.

He said troops who for more than a month have besieged a suspected rebel stronghold at Cot Trieng would begin to be withdrawn from the area as of Tuesday.

In the provincial capital Banda Aceh some 1,000 prayed at the Baiturrahman mosque to give thanks for the peace deal.

A Thai major-general will be the senior foreign official charged with ensuring that the ceasefire holds, a source close to the peace process said, AFP reported.

The Thai, who was not named, will represent the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Center (HDC), which negotiated the peace deal, as one of three top figures on a 15-strong joint security committee. The other two will be nominated by Jakarta and GAM.

The committee is charged with monitoring the truce and investigating violations. It will have 144 monitors on the ground - one-third from the Thai and Philippine military, one-third from the Indonesian military and one-third from GAM.

The foreign monitors are seen as crucial to the success of this agreement after earlier ceasefires broke down. Seventeen foreign officials including five British members of a temporary monitoring team flew in to Aceh Tuesday.

Under the deal both parties for the first two months will relocate to defensive positions and avoid “provocative acts.”

After that the rebels will begin dumping weapons at designated sites. Only HDC and GAM officials will have keys to the arms dumps.

Simultaneously with the handover, there will be a phased relocation of the armed forces, “which will reformulate their mandate from a strike force to a defensive force.”

Brimob paramilitary police, who have a particular reputation for brutality in the province, must halt attacks under the deal.

Brimob First Inspector Sony Sanjaya told AFP he is confined to barracks under an order received at 7 pm Monday.

The deal follows two years of negotiations brokered by the Henry Dunant Centre, a Swiss-based non-governmental organization. One mediator, retired U.S. general Anthony Zinni, said: “Both parties represented here really want this agreement to work. This is a good starting point. But it is just the beginning, not the end.”

While the deal represents the best chance so far to settle the conflict, deep skepticism remains about whether it can hold on the ground.

Fighting continued almost daily in Aceh even as the last details were being thrashed out and, although the rebels agreed to take part in the political process, their demand for independence has not been granted.

Until Monday, about 15,000 Brimob members had been backing up more than 20,000 soldiers in operations against GAM in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island.

A Brimob armored car sat parked in the front yard of the Sukamakmur police station just outside Banda Aceh. Some officers manned a sandbagged post at the front gate while others played table tennis under the hot sun.

GAM members have also been ordered back to barracks, the field commander Amri bin Abdul Wahub said. A political settlement has been shelved for the time being.

However, the rebels say they have not dropped their demand for independence for the oil and gas-rich province of 4.2 million people. The government has implemented broad autonomy. The deal calls for an “all inclusive dialogue” before free elections in Aceh in 2004.