74 GAM inmates sent to West Java

Nani Afrida and Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post/Banda Aceh/Bandung

Seventy-four convicted Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists arrived on Thursday afternoon in Bandung amid tight security.

The 74-inmates, including four former GAM negotiators, were flown from Banda Aceh in the morning aboard an Army Hercules aircraft and reached Husein Sastranegara Air Force Base in Bandung at 1 p.m.

When the plane landed, hundreds of heavily armed police officers surrounded the aircraft with long rifle at the ready.

West Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Edi Darnadi, Husein Sastranegara Air Force Base chief Col. Zamhari and the speaker of the West Java provincial council, Eka Santosa, were among the top West Java officials present as the inmates were led off the plane.

Five buses were waiting to transport the inmates to prisons in five regencies in West Java province.

The Indonesian Military and officials from the five prisons in West Java signed a memorandum of understanding at the air base, paving the way for the prisons to receive and house the inmates.

Escorted by police officers, 17 of the inmates were loaded onto a bus and transferred to Sukamiskin Prison in Bandung regency. Seventeen others were sent to Cirebon Prison, 13 to Indramayu Prison, 14 to Majalengka Prison and the remaining 13 inmates were transferred to Kuningan Prison.

The 74 inmates are all serving prison sentences of between three and 20 years for treason.

Three of the four former GAM negotiators will occupy special cells at Sukamiskin Prison in Bandung. They are Tengku Kamaruzzaman and Muhammad Usman, who are serving 13 year sentences, and Amni Achmad Marzuki, who was sentenced to 12 years in jail. The fourth former negotiator, Nashirudin bin Achmed, who is serving a 13 year jail term, was transferred to Cirebon Prison.

Sofyan Ibrahim, the former top GAM negotiator, was originally to have been included among the GAM inmates transferred to West Java, but was excluded because of illness.

Commenting on the transfer of the GAM inmates, Sukotjo, the head of the prison division at the West Java office of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said the 74 inmates would undergo a month-long orientation before they were released into the general populations.

They will be taught useful skills for when they complete their jail terms, such as sewing, he said, adding that the inmates will also undergo nationalist training.

The 74 inmates are among 415 GAM inmates who have been transferred from Aceh prisons to prisons in Java. The first transfer took place in January this year.

The Indonesian Military says the transfers are aimed at solving the problem of overcrowding in Aceh prisons. They are also aimed at cutting ties between the GAM inmates and other Acehnese inmates and the Acehnese community as a whole.