Japan plans to host a donor conference early next month to support the peace process in Indonesia's Aceh Province in light of a forthcoming peace accord between Jakarta and rebels, government sources said Thursday.
The government has invited the United States, the European Union, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the World Bank and other countries and organizations to hold ambassador-level talks Dec. 3 in Tokyo, the sources said.
Japan is keen to make diplomatic efforts to help peace take root in postconflict areas and wants to play an active role in supporting the peacemaking and reconstruction processes for Aceh, the sources said.
Representatives from the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, are expected to attend the Tokyo meeting. The two parties have agreed to sign a peace agreement Dec. 9 in Geneva to end their 26-year conflict, an Indonesian Cabinet minister announced Tuesday in Jakarta.
Armed conflict between the government and GAM in Aceh Province on northern Sumatra Island has claimed more than 10,000 lives, most of them civilians, since 1976.