Jakarta to meet Aceh's foreign observers on July 28: Minister

JAKARTA (Antara): The Indonesian government is scheduled to hold a meeting with representatives of the European Community and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to discuss detailsof their missions to monitor the peace agreement with the Aceh rebels, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Tuesday.

"We hope the meeting will be held on July 28 to work out the details on how to manage the Aceh monitoring mission from the EU and ASEAN," Hassan said after meeting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Hassan said that he had sent letters on July 12 to foreign ministers of ASEAN countries, urging them to send a mission to monitor the peace agreement, which is expected to be signed in August.

EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana said in Brussels on Monday the 25-nation bloc would send around 200 observers to help monitor the agreement. Solana said he would visit Jakarta next week to hold talks with senior government officials to discuss the mission.

"We have received from the two sides the offer to monitor the peace process that was initialed," said Solana as quoted by AP. "After the tsunami, one of the things we wanted to do is to see if we could, at the end of these events, after so much suffering there, to get the peace process (going ) in Aceh. Weare pretty close." (**)

Jakarta Post, 19 July 2005