Fery free; GAM takes seven more

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A weary but grinning Fery Santoro, an RCTI television cameraman, was finally released on Sunday after being held hostage almost a year by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

However, anxiety prevailed in the media community as the separatist group abducted additional reporters accompanying the negotiation team, a GAM spokesman said.

A tense series of negotiations eventually ended with the release of Fery along with three other civilian hostages in Lhok Juoh area, Peudawa Timur, East Aceh.

Dozens of journalists and Indonesian Red Cross chairman Mar'ie Muhammad greeted the hostages, who arrived in Meunasah Krueng village in an ambulance. By Sunday evening, Fery had been transported to Langsa, East Aceh, and was admitted to a hospital for a medical check.

"I am tired, but happy," he said as quoted by detik.com.

His fate was unknown on Saturday, when Fery was not among the 22 civilian hostages released by GAM. His family and the media community remained fearful that he would share the fate of his colleague Sory Ersa Siregar, who was shot dead last December in what the military maintains was a crossfire between soldiers and GAM fighters.

In Jakarta, Fery's wife, Mayawati, expressed her joy on the release of her husband, who was abducted on June 29.

"Thank God. This is the most wonderful gift...," she told detik.com, and that their only son, Ferdi, kept asking when he could see his father since the family received the news from RCTI.

Outgoing Secretary to the Coordinating Minister for Security and Political Affairs Maj. Gen. Sudi Silalahi said as quoted by Antara that Fery was released at about 3:35 p.m.

The good news was immediately followed by renewed anxiety among the media as reporters with the team that fetched Fery could not be contacted as of late Sunday. According to TV7, these include negotiators Imam Wahyudi of RCTI and Nezar Patria of the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), and reporters Munir of RCTI, Arifin of Republika and Nani Farida of The Jakarta Post.

"Seven reporters are being held hostage as a guarantee," Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin told the Post.

A GAM spokesman who declined to be named confirmed that seven reporters were being held as a guarantee that TNI would not attack their location, "because GAM will be releasing other hostages". Even with the release of 22 civilians on Saturday and another four on Sunday, GAM has yet to release over 170 of the 200 hostages with them.

Sjafrie had promised last week that no offensive would be made during the hostages' release. However, journalists in East Aceh reported soldiers approaching Lhok Juoh, about a 3.5-hour ride from Langsa.

GAM spokesman Teuku Cut Kafrawi told Antara: "We are still in the process of gathering the hostages to a particular place before handing them to the ICRC," referring to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Separately, Secretary-General of the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) Iyang Sukandar said from Langsa that the PMI were as yet undecided on their stance, pending clear information on whether any reporters were planning to cover the next release of hostages.

Fery and Ersa, their driver Rachmatsyah and the wives of two Air Force servicemen were abducted by GAM in East Aceh. Rachmatsyah escaped in December and the two women were freed in February.