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