GAM suspect warns of more terrorist strikes in Medan
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan, North Sumatra
A detained suspected commander of the armed Free Aceh Movement (GAM) warned the police here that 40 GAM members were planning more terror attacks in Medan following two recent bomb blasts in and around the North Sumatra capital.
"The suspect, GAM commander Abdul Wahab, confessed that there are still 40 of his men in Medan whom can be called upon to commit terror attacks at anytime," the head of Medan's police detective unit, Adj. Comr. Maruli Siahaan, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
He said the police were hunting the 40 remaining GAM members but could not say whether they were still in the city.
Abdul is the alleged GAM commander in charge of the group's operations in the North Sumatra regency of Deli and in Medan. He is one of five suspects the police arrested last week in connection with a bomb explosion in the parking lot of the Medan mayor's office on March 31. No one was injured in the blast, which damaged three cars.
Police arrested three more suspects over the bomb blast at a gas pipeline facility belonging to state oil and gas company Pertamina near Deli seaport on April 1.
At one of the suspect's homes, police found two homemade bombs buried in the backyard, and black powder stashed in a plastic bag and hidden inside the septic tank.
Maruli said that four other suspects were still at large.
The police, he said, were interrogating the detained suspects to find the fugitives and uncover their network in Medan.
"The confessions of these suspects will hopefully disclose their network and provide us with leads on the whereabouts of their four partners," he said.
Medan Police detective Maruli urged the public to be on the alert while police continued to hunt the suspects as well as the 40 GAM members.
Warnings about further terror attacks followed two bombing incidents last week in Jakarta that police have linked to GAM.
On Sunday a bomb exploded at Soekarno-Hatta international airport in Jakarta, injuring 11 people. "The bomb was similar to the one used in Medan, which was carried by people who were members of GAM," said National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar.
Another similar bomb exploded three days earlier behind the United Nations building in Jakarta, causing minor damage but no casualties.
Police have yet to confirm that the attacks were the work of GAM. The other suspect was Jamaah Islamiyah, the terrorist group behind last year's Bali bombing, which killed at least 202 people.
On Sunday, GAM denied the charges that it was responsible for the blasts in Jakarta. GAM military spokesman Sofyan Dawod said the rebel group was operating within Aceh only.
GAM has been fighting for the independence of the natural resource rich province since 1976 in a war that has claimed over 10,000 mainly civilian lives.
The Indonesian government and GAM signed a landmark peace accord in December last year, inviting for the first time international observers. But five months later, the peace process has all but collapsed.
The recent bomb attacks came against the backdrop of a canceled meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to salvage the peace agreement.