GAM gives assurance on Fery

GAM gives assurance on Fery

INDONESIA: The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) commander for Pereulak,
Ishak Daud, stressed on Saturday that the rebels would release TV
station RCTI cameraman Fery Santoro and other civilian hostages
on May 13.

"We expect the safety to be guaranteed of those who transport
the hostages to the location where they will be freed, of the
hostages and of those who pick the hostages up," Ishak said in a
telephone conversation with International Federation of
Journalists (IFJ) secretary-general Aiden White on Saturday.

Dauk said GAM would not attack the TNI from May 10 through May
14 and asked the latter not to cary out military patrols around
the ranch of PT Bumi Flora, Pidie Rayeuk, East Aceh, from April
12 through April 14.

Fery was abducted by GAM on June 29 last year while on
assignment in Langsa, along with colleague Sory Ersa Siregar,
their driver and the wives of two Air Force officers.

Ersa was subsequently killed by TNI personnel in a gunfight
with GAM on Dec. 29; the driver escaped late last year and the
women were released in February.

-- JP