Violence in Indonesia's Aceh province left 17 dead as security authorities and separatist rebels in an accord made public Sunday agreed to end the violence and work towards peace in the troubled region.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and government representatives late Friday agreed to provide security guarantees to both local and international humanitarian workers and to "maintain public order and act against crime."
GAM has fought a guerrilla war against Jakarta rule in the resource-rich province since 1976.
The agreement, a copy of which was received by AFP, followed two days of closed-door talks between representatives from GAM and Aceh's police and military at a hotel in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
The sides also agreed to intensify dialogues among all military and police commanders at the district level.
"We call on the public to support this agreement for the sake of peace in Aceh," a joint statement issued after the meeting said.
Four suspected GAM rebels were killed on Sunday in a raid by troops on a warehouse believed to used by the separatists for making weapons in Batee village in Bireun District, police spokesman Abdi Darmawan said.
Several pistols and rifles were seized from the site, he said.
Rebel spokesman Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki denied the four dead were rebels.
Darmawan said police killed three other rebels trying to ambush their convoy in the Cot Teufah village on Sunday.
Amni said the three killed were ordinary residents, adding police also killed two other civilians in a nearby village.
A shootout between rebels and government soldiers left a teenager killed by a stray bullet in the village of Serba Yaman in North Aceh district on Saturday, police chief Adjutant Commissioner Wanto Sumardi said.
Two soldiers were wounded in the same gunfight, Sumardi said.
Residents said four more bodies were found on Sunday in two separate places in Aceh.
On Saturday, two bodies with gunshot wounds were found in the Blang Lamganca village in Pidie district, head of the district's truce monitoring team Syahrul Nurfa said.
The discovery followed a sweep operation by soldiers and police in the area the previous day, he said.
A civilian who has been missing since Wednesday was found Friday dead in a ravine in the Alur Naga area, East Aceh, a local journalist said.
More than 180 people have been killed in Aceh this year, according to Aceh's Care Human Rights Forum.
Jakarta has ruled out independence for Aceh and pledged autonomy instead -- BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP)
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