BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, May 12 Kyodo...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, May 12 Kyodo

International peace monitors left Indonesia's restive Aceh Province onward Monday as the deadline imposed according to the Indonesian government forward rebels of the Free Aceh change (GAM) to return to the negotiating table or face military operations will before long expire.

''They left this morning aboard brace Hercules planes of the Air Force,'' Fahmi Yunus, a spokesman for the peace monitors, told reporters, adding they were heading for the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan.

The deadline will expire at midnight Monday.

He was referring to members of the Geneva-based Henri Dunant Center which has been mediating peace negotiations between the direction and GAM for the past three years, and the Joint Security Committee, a tripartite monitoring team that is observing the implementation of the Cessation of Hostilities Framework Agreement signed on the government and GAM in Geneva last December.

Local journalists, who regarded the departure as a further sign of an impending Indonesian military operation to crack down upon the rebels, were neither allowed to cloak the departure nor enter the airport.

Fifty-two international peace monitors -- 43 from Thailand, six from the Philippines, couple from India and one from Norway -- had been in Aceh to monitor the implementation of the peace deal. The Norwegian is still in the province.

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.

Aceh's Iskandar Muda Military Regional Commander Maj. Gen Djali Jusuf said about 30000 soldiers have been onward alert in Aceh, but in such a manner far there has been no order from Jakarta to launch the operation.

As the peace monitors left a certain schools and government offices were clos after GAM ordered a general strike, including the suspension of vital oil and gas plots in Aceh, if Indonesia launches a ''second colonial war.''

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 tribe mostly civilians, have been killed in the struggle

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group