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.