EU General Affairs Council Conclusions on Indonesia/Aceh

The Council adopted the following conclusions:

"The Council welcomed the very substantial progress made in restoring peace in Aceh and commended the Government of Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for their good cooperation and genuine commitment to implement the Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding of August 2005.

The Council noted with satisfaction that the demobilisation of GAM and the decommissioning of its weapons as well as the relocation away from Aceh of non-organic military forces and non-organic police has been successfully completed. However, important challenges remain regarding the further implementation of the MoU. The Council therefore called on both parties to continue to work together for lasting peace in the province.

The Council commended the Aceh Monitoring Mission, in which the European Union operates alongside 5 ASEAN Member States - Brunei, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - as well as with Norway and Switzerland, for its important role in monitoring the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding. Following an invitation by the Government of Indonesia, supported by GAM, the Council decided to extend the Aceh Monitoring Mission for a further period of three months until 15 June 2006.

The Council welcomed the European Community's measures in Aceh, worth € 25 million, to support and consolidate the results of the peace process and underlined its support to the forthcoming local elections in Aceh, including the possible deployment of an EU election observation mission.

The Council noted with satisfaction that the EU successfully mobilized its different instruments in a comprehensive manner to support the peace process in Aceh. The Council will consider how further to strengthen the EU's relations with Indonesia and the wider ASEAN region."

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• Press conference: End of EU-led ACEH monitoring mission (AMM) (18/12/2006)
• EU Council Conclusions on Indonesia/Aceh  (11/12/2006)
• Aceh, Indonesia: EU deploys Election Observation Mission (16/11/2006)
• EU Commission statement on executions in Indonesia (22/9/2006)
• EU response to Indonesia earthquake (31/5/2006)
• EU General Affairs Council Conclusions on Sudan/Darfur (Brussels: 27 February 2006) (27/2/2006)
• EU General Affairs Council Conclusions on EU-Latin America Relations (27/2/2006)
• EU External Relations Council Conclusions on the Western Balkans  (27/2/2006)
• EU External Relations Council Conclusions on Iraq (27/2/2006)