Aceh, 2005 →

Timeline

1. Pre-2005
   ≈30 years GAM ↔ TNI conflict in Aceh; humanitarian crisis after 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami creates political space.
   Source: ICG · CMI
2. 15 Aug 2005
   Helsinki Memorandum of Understanding signed between Government of Indonesia (GoI) and Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM). Self-government within Indonesia — not independence.
   Source: Helsinki MoU 2005
3. Sep 2005 – Dec 2006
   Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM, EU + ASEAN contributing states): supervised TNI/Polri withdrawal to agreed strength; GAM weapons decommissioning in four phases; demobilisation of GAM combatants.
   Source: AMM Final Report 2006
4. 2006
   Law on Governing of Aceh (Law 11/2006): local political parties, sharia-jurisdiction provisions, special autonomy, oil/gas revenue share.
   Source: Law 11/2006 (Indonesia)
5. 2006–present
   No return to large-scale armed conflict. Ongoing civilian-governance disputes are handled politically. Monitoring is described as published, time-bound, externally observed.
   Source: ICG follow-up briefings

Why it is cited as a reference frame

• Phased and published. Withdrawal numbers, weapons categories and dates were public, not negotiated in private.
• Independently monitored. AMM was external (EU + ASEAN), with reporting authority — not the parties grading themselves.
• Non-territorial settlement. Self-government within the existing state — the question Sri Lanka has never been willing to publish a timetable for.
• Tsunami context matters. Political opening was partly humanitarian — reading Aceh as a pure-process model ignores the shock that created the window.

What this is not

• Aceh and the North-East differ in history, demographic composition, religious context, and international alignment.
• GAM was a unified armed party with negotiating leadership at Helsinki. Sri Lanka's post-2009 landscape has no such counterpart, and TLTE is explicitly not one.
• Aceh's sharia-jurisdiction provisions have produced their own human-rights critiques. Citing Aceh as a procedural reference does not endorse its content.
• Aceh is shown as a published, monitored, time-bound transition — not as a content model.