Senior Aceh separatist leader surrenders

Senior Aceh separatist leader surrenders

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta/Banda Aceh

A field commander with the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM)'s
military wing appeared in Jakarta on Tuesday, declaring that he
had given up the struggle for independence.

Accompanied by a lawyer, Tengku Amri bin Abdul Wahab was
presented during a press conference following a ceremony at the
Office of the Coordinating Minister for Political and Security
Affairs in Jakarta.

"Following my conscience, without pressure from any party or
person, I surrendered to the Republic of Indonesia and am ready
to accept special autonomy," he said.

When asked why he turned himself in, Amri replied that recent
"irresponsible statements" by GAM leaders in Aceh and abroad had
forced him to "rejoin the motherland".

Amri said he called Col. Embu Agapitus, an Indonesian member
of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) in Aceh, at about 2:45 a.m.
on Monday about his intention to surrender. He later left Aceh on
the same flight as international peace monitors.

Calling on other GAM members to give up their fight, Amri said
his decision was "for the interests of Acehnese and Indonesians".

Amri was one of four GAM representatives on the JSC who were
arrested on Friday and charged with committing terrorist acts.
They four were released on Sunday and placed under police
supervision.

Brig. Gen. Safzen Noerdin, who heads the Indonesian delegation
on the JSC, said Amri's decision caught him by surprise.

"I don't know why he surrendered, because I knew him as a
militant GAM member. Indeed, he was the most outspoken member of
the GAM representatives on the JSC," he said before presenting
Amri to reporters.

Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto
praised Amri's decision to return to the fold of Indonesia, and
said he hoped that other GAM members would follow suit.

"We will protect him and his family and hope that more of his
friends follow in his footsteps," Endriartono said after a
Cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

The four-star general said the government would grant amnesty
to GAM members who surrendered and accepted the government's
offer of special autonomy for the province.

National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said the police had
placed Amri in a safe house.

GAM spokesman Sofyan Dawood, however, expressed doubt that
Amri had surrendered. He demanded the Indonesian government allow
Amri to hold a press conference in the provincial capital of
Banda Aceh to prove that he had voluntarily turned himself in.

However, when later contacted by The Jakarta Post, Sofyan said
that Amri decided to defect after learning that he would be
dismissed and brought to justice by GAM for his reputed close
ties with Indonesian officials.

"It is better for him to make his own way because we don't
trust him," he told the Post by phone.

Sofyan denied that Amri, who is known to have close ties with
the GAM commander in Aceh, Muzakir Manaf, was a senior official
in GAM.

Meanwhile, GAM negotiator Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba at first
explained Amri's disappearance by saying the Army's Special
Forces had kidnapped him from his hotel in Banda Aceh on Monday.

Nevertheless, Tiba later said that Amri's decision to
surrender to Indonesia would not disrupt GAM's fight.

"Whether he surrendered of his own free will or by force, it
will not influence GAM's fight," he said in Banda Aceh.