Sweden and GAM

Sweden and GAM

From Media Indonesia

In 2001, the government sent an envoy to Sweden requesting
that Sweden take action against some of its citizens that have
caused destruction in Indonesian territory.

At first, Sweden rejected the request, but after the
government provided the Swedish government with the necessary
evidence, in June last year, the Swedish government admitted that
Hasan Tiro et al. were involved in destructive acts in Aceh.

Finally, on June 15, 2004, the prosecutor's office in
Stockholm, Sweden, arrested the leaders of the separatist Free
Aceh Movement (GAM): Hasan Tiro, Zaini Abdullah and Malik
Mahmood. The prosecutor's office and the police in Stockholm have
named the three as suspected of grave breaches of international
law.

For many years, GAM has considered the Indonesian military
(TNI) its enemy, and has waged a war against the TNI. For the
TNI, GAM is a separatist movement. They are a band of rebels and
are therefore enemies of the Republic of Indonesia.

The victims of this conflict are not only armed people but
unarmed civilians. Thousands of unarmed civilians have lost their
lives because of GAM's savagery. It turns out that some GAM
leaders are foreign citizens: Hasan Tiro and Zaini Abdullah are
Swedish citizens and Malik Mahmood holds a Singaporean passport.

It is our hope that Tiro et al. will be immediately tried so
that the international community may learn of their vicious acts.

Now that GAM's top leaders have been arrested, it is time to
declare GAM a separatist and forbidden organization. In this way,
fordinary Acehnese will have the courage to fight them.

IFUL SAMEY
Bogor, West Java