Indonesia began withdrawing troops from Aceh on Sunday following completion of an initial arms surrender by rebels, a key part of an agreement aimed at ending nearly 30 years of conflict.
Soldiers joked and laughed as they carried automatic weapons before boarding a ship at a port in Lhokseumawe on Aceh's northern coast. Aceh army chief Supiadin told reporters 800 soldiers were sent off from the port on Sunday.
"After about 10 months on duty here, I am of course very happy to leave and to be with my family again," said Gatot, a first sergeant from an artillery unit based in North Sumatra's provincial capital Medan.
The rebels' Free Aceh Movement (GAM) surrendered more than a quarter of their self-declared total 840 weapons to peace observers from Europe and Southeast Asia by a Saturday deadline, the first stage in a peace deal calling for rebels to disarm and the withdrawal of large numbers of government security forces.
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