Over 170 GAM members sent to Java

Over 170 GAM members sent to Java

Tiarma Siboro
and Suherdjoko
Jakarta/Semarang

The Aceh authorities transferred on Monday 171 convicted Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels from jails in Aceh province to prisons
on Java island.

The transfer of the rebels to jails in Java was the third
since the government imposed martial law in Aceh in May last
year.

Also transferred on Monday was Muhammad Nazar, the head of the
presidium of the Aceh Referendum Information Center, who was
sentenced to five years in jail in May last year for spreading
hatred against the government.

In January, the government sent a second batch of GAM
prisoners to the maximum security prison in Nusakambangan,
Central Java. The first prisoner transfer took place in December
last year.

Monday's transfer brings the number of convicted GAM rebels
shipped out of Aceh to over 300. They have been placed in prisons
across Java.

At least 136 of the GAM rebels transferred on Monday were
taken from Keudah prison in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
They were taken on 10 trucks to the Sultan Iskandar Muda military
air base.

They were loaded into a Hercules carrier, along with 35 other
prisoners from Lhokseumawe in North Aceh, that took off at 9 a.m.
and landed at Ahmad Yani Airport in Semarang, Central Java, at 3
p.m.

Family members gathered in front of Keudah prison saw their
loved ones boarding the trucks in chains.

Muhammad Nazar's wife, Dewi, said the police did not inform
her of her husband's transfer until the last minute.

"The police told me about the transfer at about 7 a.m., saying
that my husband would be moved to Java in about an hour. I
visited my husband and talked to him for about 10 minutes before
he was put on the truck," Dewi told The Jakarta Post by phone.

"My husband is sick and I don't have any idea how I will be
able to visit him while he is out of Aceh," she said.

According to an official at the Central Java Justice and Human
Rights Office, Marsono, 81 of the 171 GAM prisoners would be sent
to six penitentiaries -- 11 to Kedungpane prison, 20 to
Pekalongan prison, 10 to Kendal prison, 10 to Pati prison, 20 to
Sragen prison and 10 to Magelang prison.

Marsono said most of the transferred prisoners had been
sentenced to at least three years in jail by the Banda Aceh
District Court.

"All of the prisoners are male," Marsono said, denying that
Cut Nur Asikin, a commander of GAM's female wing Inong Balee, was
among the prisoners transferred to Java.

Marsono said the transfer was "aimed at improving the spirit
of nationalism among Acehnese rebels".

The Indonesian Military has arrested thousands of suspected
GAM members since the government declared martial law in Aceh in
May 2003, which has led to overcrowding in many of Aceh's
prisons.

The declaration of martial law paved the way for a military
offensive against GAM, which has been fighting for independence
for the resource-rich province since 1976.