Peace Turns Aceh Rebels Into Civilians

He then returned to the jungle, to the battle. "Since the peace deal," he said, "I guess I'm a free man."

But with only an elementary school education and with his longest job experience as a guerrilla, Muthalib is unsure of his prospects. "This is my son," he said, cradling 4-year-old Muhammad Yasin. "For him, I need to find a living."

Syaifuddin, 36, was Muthalib's rebel deputy commander. Sitting on the platform next to Muthalib, he pointed to men and boys shoveling gravel on the riverbank.

"This is it," he said, gesturing with his hand toward a gravel pit. Each man is paid $5 a day. "You can't count this as a job," he said. "This is just for survival, to feed your stomach."

The rebels have set up an Aceh Transition Committee to help their 3,000 soldiers become civilians. About 15,000 to 20,000 additional people, widows and civilian sympathizers of the rebels, also need support, rebel spokesman Munawarliza Zain said. The international community is supporting the peace deal, and agencies such as the International Organization for Migration are helping to develop job training programs, he said.

Both sides acknowledge that building trust is not easy. For instance, in the past, the rebel movement would say that it was laying down its weapons, but in reality it was stockpiling them, said Gen. Bambang Darmono, former Indonesian commander in Aceh and now the government's representative to the Aceh Monitoring Mission, an international body set up to ensure that the peace pact's terms are respected. Today, when their leaders say they have no weapons, he said, "I have to trust."

A monitoring mission led by the European Union has earned the confidence of the rebels, who asked for an extension of its six-month term, which is scheduled to end in March. On Friday, the government announced that the mission might be extended by up to six months, which would allow the mission to monitor the law's passage and local elections scheduled for April 26.

The elections are key to the rebel movement's transition to a civilian movement. Because it is unlikely that the former guerrillas can organize a political party by the April elections, the group is preparing to field independent candidates for governor, vice governor and several district leadership posts.

The former rebels are "going to be facing a lot of money coming out of Jakarta," said Kingsbury, the adviser, referring to candidates from national parties based in the capital. "And GAM's broke."

A sense of injustice, which moved Syaifuddin and Muthalib to join the rebels, lingers.

Muthalib held up his left forearm, disfigured by a welt of scar tissue that he said resulted from a burn from a lighter during a military interrogation. He described how police interrogators forced him and a fellow rebel to run, jump and squat, and then to lick the sweat off each other.

Syaifuddin recalled how soldiers tore down his open-air coffee shop and stole three tons of rice from his barn, using a refrigerated truck to haul it away. He recalled how they painted a big red X and the letters GAM on his house. The letters are still there.

"It is difficult to forget the past," Syaifuddin said. "But we have to forget little by little."

Special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed to this report.