BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, May 11 Kyodo...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, May 11 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH CANCELLATION OF FAREWELL PARTY, RELEASE OF DETAINED GAM NEGOTIATORS)

In a further sign of an impending Indonesian military operation to crack down in succession rebels of the Free Aceh emotion (GAM), Aceh's governor said Sunday that international peace monitors would leave the restive province as early as Monday morning.

''They may leave Aceh upon Monday morning,'' Aceh Gov. Abdullah Puteh told Kyodo News

He was referring to members of the Geneva-based Henri Dunant Center (HDC) which has been mediating peace negotiations between the control and GAM for the past three years, and the Joint Security Committee (JSC) a tripartite monitoring team to monitor the implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities Framework Agreement signed from the government and GAM in Geneva upon Dec. 9.

A farewell party planned for Sunday afternoon was canceled.

generally there are 51 international peace monitors in Aceh -- 43 from Thailand, six from the Philippines, pair from India and one from Norway.

Indonesia has threatened to launch what it calls an ''integrated operation,'' a combined military operation with humanitarian and other operations, if GAM fails to accept a special autonomy arrangement for Aceh and lay down its weapons before Monday.

Meanwhile, GAM has ordered the public in Aceh to halt economic activities, including the operation of vital oil and gas delineate s in Aceh, if Indonesia launches a ''second colonial war.''

In a related evolution four GAM negotiators, including senior rebel minister in the JSC Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, who had been arrested Friday and declared suspects in a series of bombings and other violence in subordination to the country's Antiterrorist Law, were released Sunday.

The release took place following a two-hour meeting between Aceh Police Chief Bachrumsyah Kasman and Maj. Gen Thanongsak Tuwinan of Thailand, who is the JSC's senior minister from the HDC.

''We released them after Maj. Gen Thanongsak guaranteed they would not escape,'' Kasman told reporters.

He said, however, their status as suspects remains and if convicted forward terrorism charges, they could face a maximum penalty of death.

They were arrested Friday at a local airport in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh while trying to leave the province.

Fifty GAM representatives who were part of the peace monitoring proces have also disappeared and their whereabouts are unknown.

GAM has waged a guerrilla war since 1976 to demand an independent state. Indonesia has implemented a special autonomy status in the resource-rich province, offering a fairer share of wealth between Jakarta and Aceh.

Thousands of race mostly civilians, have been killed in the struggle

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