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 LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia (AP) - Indonesia withdrew 800 soldiers from tsunami-battered Aceh province on Sunday after rebels handed over a quarter of their guns, moving quickly to fulfill key obligations under a peace deal to end three decades of fighting.
The troops — the first of some 30,000 security forces slated to leave the province by the year's end — chanted and waved their helmets in the air as they marched aboard the warship that set sail hours later.
If the process of demobilization and disarmament goes smoothly, it would significantly raise hopes that an agreement to end the war that has claimed nearly 15,000 lives in the oil- and gas-rich region might hold.
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