Rebel leader on 'secret' mission in KL
Rebel leader on 'secret' mission in KL
Agencies, Jakarta
A senior Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel leader who is also the group's spokesman said on Saturday he had escaped the Indonesian military's security cordon and was now in Malaysia on a "secret" mission.
"I didn't flee," Sofyan Daud told AFP in Jakarta by satellite telephone.
Daud is the rebels' chief spokesman and also commander of GAM's Pase district near the city of Lhokseumawe, where there has been intense military activity since government forces launched a major offensive on May 19 to wipe out the rebels.
"I am in Malaysia," Daud said.
He said he left Aceh more than two weeks ago and flew to Malaysia from Jakarta using a different name.
Daud said he was now in the Kuala Lumpur area on a "secret" mission and would definitely return to Aceh.
In a conversation with AFP earlier on Saturday, he denied military allegations that the rebels were increasingly hemmed in by the military operation.
The Kompas newspaper's website, quoting sources at Indonesian National Police Headquarters, said Daud "fled" Indonesia on Thursday, likely using a speedboat.
Police Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi told AFP he had no information about Daud's whereabouts but added that Indonesian police had already asked Interpol to arrest "all GAM rebels, including their top leaders."
"If he is indeed hiding in Malaysia, then we will ask for him to be handed over to us because he and his colleagues are guilty of terrorism and treason in Indonesia," Sutadi said.
Col. Ditya Soedarsono, a military spokesman, said it was "quite possible" Daud had fled to Malaysia "but then again he could be lying by claiming that he was there while in fact he may still be hiding from us in Aceh."
Meanwhile, a military source told The Jakarta Post that security officers raided a house in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra, where a group of GAM members was believed to be hiding. The group managed to flee.
"Sofyan Daud must have been one of them," said the source, who asked to remain anonymous.
Close to 40,000 soldiers and police are battling a GAM force the military estimated at about 5,000 when the operation began.
The military said on Saturday that 531 rebels had been killed and 1,277 had been captured or had surrendered during the operation.
A senior police detective, Col. Andi Chaeruddin, told AP on Saturday that police had arrested six Acehnese rebels for alleged links to bombings earlier this year at the House of Representatives, at the Soekarno-Hatta airport and in front of the United Nations building in Jakarta,
Aceh Besar police arrested four GAM members, including a female fighter, or inoeng balee.
Aceh Besar Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Heru Budi Ersanto said in Banda Aceh on Saturday that two of the GAM members turned themselves in while two others were arrested t their hiding place in Siron village. The four are Nurhayati, 30, Fajeri, 19, Safrizal, 20, and Adeli, 17.
Three intelligence officers were seriously injured in an attack by a group of rebels in Beureunot village, Seulimum, Aceh Besar
First Lt. Doni Pedro, one of the intelligence officers, said his group was assaulted when they were patrolling the village to look into villagers' reports that rebels were collecting taxes from them.
"We were attacked in the village," he said.
Meanwhile, Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno made a short inspection of Monstasik subdistrict, which was a strong GAM base in Aceh Besar regency, to check on public administration in the area.
He appreciated the more favorable situation in Aceh after two months of the integrated operation. He said he would report on the progress to President Megawati Soekarnoputri following his return to Jakarta.
"There has been significant progress made since the public administration start to function effectively again, and this means we can now start developing the province to improve the people's welfare," he said after handing over 53 typewriters to 53 villages in the subdistrict.