Aceh proindependence activist arrested for holding illegal rally

Ibnu Matnoor and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Aceh

Police arrested for the second time in two years Aceh proindependence activist Muhammad Nazar, charging him with organizing an illegal rally in January.

Nazar, who chairs the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA), was arrested by seven Banda Aceh Police officers at his house in Lampulo Baru village near Banda Aceh at about 1:30 a.m. on Wednesday, according to his wife Dewi Mutia.

"The officers took my husband away in handcuffs," she said of the predawn arrest.

A colleague of Nazar's who was sleeping in the house, Hamzah, said the officers woke him up and ordered him at gunpoint to show them Nazar's bedroom.

The police also seized a laptop computer and several copies of the local daily Serambi Indonesia, which contained accounts of the police hunt for Nazar.

North Aceh Police officers had been searching for Nazar for two weeks.

"We arrested Nazar in connection with his campaign and speeches for a referendum for the province, which discouraged the government's efforts to promote the peace agreement," the spokesman for the Aceh provincial police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Sayed Husaini, told The Jakarta Post.

He was referring to the cessation of hostilities agreement signed by the government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels in Geneva on Dec. 9, 2002.

The police have charged Nazar with violating Article 510 of the Criminal Code and Article 10 of Law No. 9/1998 on freedom of expression, for failing to give police prior notice of rallies, which is considered a minor offense.

But Nazar could face the more serious charge of causing public unrest.

Early in 2001, the Banda Aceh District Court sentenced Nazar to nine months in jail for spreading hatred against the government. He was released in October 2001.

Separately, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto brushed aside the possibility of a self-determination referendum in the province, saying that "special autonomy is the final solution to the conflict in the province".

Endriartono, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar are on a three-day visit to the province to observe the beginning of the demilitarization process there.

The peace deal between the government and rebels has been in place for two months. GAM said it would begin lying down its arms on Sunday, when the demilitarization phase of the pact took effect.