Lhokseumawe, Indonesia ? Indonesian soldiers lugged guns and heavy bags up gangplanks Thursday as they completed the final phase of a troop reduction in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province – a key step in an accord with separatist rebels to end a 29-year war.

The last of 24,000 troops pulled out on five Navy ships and a Hercules air carrier, just days after Free Aceh Movement rebels completed the handover of their weapons and disbanded their military wing.

Peace efforts picked up pace after an earthquake struck off Aceh’s coast a year ago, causing a tsunami that swept away 156,000 lives in the province and left a half-million others homeless.

The rebels and the government decided they did not want to add to people’s suffering and reached a landmark agreement seven months later. The move was credited with helping smooth efforts to get relief to tsunami survivors.

Free Aceh Movement representative Irwandi Yusuf and Pieter Feith, head of the 240-strong European Union peace monitoring mission, were among the hundreds of people who gathered at the port to send off the nearly 3,800 soldiers – the last batch slated to leave under the deal.

Indonesian Army soldiers sing and dance Thursday before their withdrawal at Krueng Geukuh port in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province, Indonesia. Indonesia pulled out the last of 24,000 troops from Aceh province Thursday, a component of a peace accord to end a civil war with separatist rebels.

“I hope this really means peace is at hand,” Yusuf said, adding that the former insurgents were looking forward to taking part in local elections next year.

Several earlier attempts to end the fighting that broke out in 1976 and claimed 15,000 lives unraveled amid bitterness and mistrust, but analysts say the conditions for peace were more conducive this time.

The rebels agreed to hand over all of their self-declared 840 weapons and gave up their long-held demand for independence. The government agreed to withdraw more than half of its nearly 50,000 garrison from Aceh and to give the region limited self-government and control over much of the oil- and gas-rich province’s mineral wealth.

So far, the deal has stuck with the help of international peace monitors, who said Thursday the former rebels could now focus on politics instead of war.

Former fighters have come down from Aceh’s forested hills in recent months and several rebel leaders have returned to their homeland after more than 25 years of self-exile.