Two years after a peace deal was reached between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels in Aceh, Japanese-funded small businesses run by former guerrillas there are thriving, a recent survey shows.
The International Organization for Migration, with funding from the Japanese government, has so far helped some 5,000 former combatants establish small businesses in the province, according to a July IOM survey.
They include coffee shops, kiosks, fish traders, brick factories and tailors, as well as companies making "tempeh" fermented soybean cake.
The businesses were mostly started in July 2006, following the peace deal signed on Aug. 15, 2005, in Helsinki, and the government later granted amnesty to jailed guerrillas.