Below is an article published by International Herald Tribune:

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Former rebels in Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province will form a political party within months, paving the way for their full participation in 2009 national elections, officials said Saturday.

The announcement was made days before Aceh voters go to the polls to select a governor and other local positions — the first ballot since a peace deal was signed one year ago, ending a decades-long civil war that left at least 15,000 people dead.

Former members of the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, will still take part in the Dec. 11 poll, but as independents.

"We are ready to organize GAM into a local party," Malik Mahmud, the separatist movement's former prime minister-in-exile told reporters Saturday, after the government promised to pass "within days" the necessary legislation.

Efforts to end Aceh's 29-year war picked up pace after the 2004 tsunami killed more than 131,000 people in the province and left a half-million others homeless, with both sides saying they did not want to add to people's suffering.

The rebels gave up their weapons and their long-held demand for independence and the government promised to let the former fighters take part in direct gubernatorial polls and to field GAM candidates in 2009.

Peter Feith, the head of the EU-led peace monitoring mission overseeing the deal, said "before the end of this year, the government will have enacted regulations on establishing local political parties."