GAM won't disclose names of former rebels: Official

GAM won't disclose names of former rebels: Official

The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has decided not to submit a list of
names of some 3,000 former GAM fighters as requested by the
Indonesian government as part of efforts to accelerate the
reintegration process of the ex-rebels into the society.

"GAM has made a decision not to surrender the names (of former
GAM fighters)," said M. Nur Djuli, a representative of GAM with
the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), as quoted by Antara on
Wednesday.

He did not provide a reason.

The AMM, which groups peace monitors from the European Union
and some member countries of the Association of South East Asian
Nations (ASEAN), is tasked to supervise and monitor the
implementation of the Aug. 15 peace accord between the government
of Indonesia and GAM.

The Indonesian representative within the AMM, Maj. Gen.
Bambang Darmono was quoted earlier by the press as saying that
GAM should disclose the names of some 3,000 former members to
speed up the reintegration process.

He argued that the disclosure of the names of the former GAM
members was crucial since they would receive economic assistance
from the central government to help them settle back into society
during the post-conflict period.

He added that submitting the names of the former GAM members
was also an important step in enhancing the confidence-building
process between the Indonesian government and GAM.

Asked to comment on lingering concerns that revealing the
names of the former GAM members would endanger their lives once
they went back into society as civilians, Bambang said: "Please
don't think that way. Think of the positive side that this
(peace agreement) will not fail. What is in front of us is a
good situation for a much better future. That is why we need to
enhance trust between us so that there will be no problems."

Under the peace agreement, signed in Helsinki, GAM dropped its
long-held demand for independence in exchange for a form of local
government in Aceh, a province of about four million people. GAM
also agreed to disarm, while the government agreed to withdraw a
large portion of its military and police troops from the
province.

Following the recent completion of the second of four phases
of troop withdrawal and GAM decommissioning, the AMM said that
both sides had decided to accelerate the process by committing to
complete the third phase on Nov. 14.

Each of the four phases was scheduled to start in the middle
of each month. But the third phase will now be completed around
Nov. 14, the AMM said in a statement.