GAM frees 22 hostages but keeps Fery
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The family of television cameraman Fery Santoro had their hopes dashed yet again, as he and many other hostages the Acehnese rebels had been holding were not among the 22 civilian captives freed on Saturday.
The 22 are among more than 200 people who have been detained by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) over the course of a military operation to crush the guerrilla force in May last year.
The rebels handed the 22 hostages to the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in the remote subdistrict of Peudawa in East Aceh, about 70 kilometers west of the regental capital of Langsa.
Separatist guerrillas said the RCTI cameraman sacrificed his freedom and was prepared to be a "guarantor" for the safety of other captives.
The rebels promised to release the rest of the hostages within two days, depending on the security situation in the field.
GAM East Aceh operations commander Ishak Daud led a ceremony to hand over the 22 captives to PMI officials, which was witnessed by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), officials, medical workers and dozens of journalists.
A journalist there told The Jakarta Post the 22 civilians were all in good shape. They were taken to Langsa to undergo a medical checkup at a hospital guarded by dozens of police, soldiers and military police.
"As for Fery Santoro, GAM asked for fresh negotiations with the PMI and the military," he said, while asking to remain anonymous.
"A team of negotiators, including those from the Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI), is currently visiting Fery in the mountainous Lhokjok area," the unnamed journalist said.
GAM spokesman Teuku Cut Kafrawi told AFP the rebels had intended to release Santoro, but his escorts changed their minds when they became worried after seeing soldiers in the distance while going to a release point.
Fery was abducted by rebels along with senior RCTI reporter Ersa Sori Siregar, two Acehnese women -- Cut Soraya and Cut Farida, the wives of Air Force officers -- acting as translators and a driver, Rachmatsyah, while traveling to Langsa from Peureulak area on June 29, 2003.
Rachmatsyah managed to escape last December, only days before Ersa was shot dead in what the military claimed to be a gunfight between soldiers and GAM members.
The two Acehnese women also walked free in February.
Earlier on Saturday morning, PMI chairman Mar'ie Muhammad said he was optimistic his mission would be successful, although it was unknown how many hostages would be released.
A number of PMI volunteers, a translator, a rebel lawyer and five ambulances, six doctors and nurses had headed to the release point at around 9 a.m.
The handover of the captives to the PMI attracted the attention of locals in the capital city of Banda Aceh. They monitored developments on television and radio stations that aired news of the release.
An Acehnese, Abdullah, urged the GAM guerrillas to keep their promise, saying the civilian detainees have been separated from their families and relatives for long time.
GAM has said it would release all of the detainees, whom it had previously described as spies for the military, refusing to call them hostages.
Martial law commander Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said his forces had halted operations in the Langsa area, where the hostages were to be released.
The government said on Thursday it would lift martial law and instead place Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam under a state of civil emergency.