Sweden expected to act against exiled GAM leaders

Sweden expected to act against exiled GAM leaders

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta

The government is waiting for Swedish authorities to act against
the exiled leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) within two
weeks, says a top security minister.

"We are waiting for one or two weeks to see whether Sweden
will act on its word that if there is adequate evidence against
Hasan Tiro and his cronies, they will file a legal process
against them," Coordinating Minister for Political and Security
Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said after briefing President
Megawati Soekarnoputri at the presidential office on Tuesday.

Susilo informed the President on the results of the special
delegation's mission to Sweden. The team, led by former foreign
minister Ali Alatas, was in Sweden from June 10 to June 14.

Alatas had already discussed the mission's result with Susilo
at the latter's office on Monday.

During his stay in the Swedish capital city of Stockholm,
Alatas and his team met with Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh
and the deputy attorney general to hand over evidence of the
exiled GAM leaders' involvement in the armed rebellion in Aceh
and in a series of terror acts in other regions across Indonesia.

The Swedish officials gave positive responses to the
Indonesian delegation, and assured them that the legal evidence
would be processed properly. The officials also allegedly said
that those exiled GAM leaders who had already obtained Swedish
citizenship would be punished if they were found to be in breach
of Swedish law.

Susilo said that the mission to Sweden was a part of the
ongoing military operation to quash the armed rebellion in Aceh.

"So, we will continue to focus on the military operation," he
said as quoted by Antara news agency.

Besides taking up arms against the government, GAM has also
allegedly committed acts of terror with a series of bombings in
Medan, North Sumatra, and Jakarta over the last three years.

GAM had launched the armed rebellion to oppose the
government's treatment of Aceh, past human rights abuses by the
two warring sides and the unjust share of the government's income
from natural resources exploration in the province.

The government had made a peace offering of a special autonomy
status for Aceh, under which it would be allowed to handle its
own domestic affairs, but GAM rejected the offer and continued to
press for independence.

Separately, former defense minister Juwono Sudarsono
congratulated the special delegation's success in conveying
Indonesia's stance on the exiled GAM leaders to the Swedish
government.

"The team, of course, has yet to succeed in convincing the
Swedish side, but, to some extent, they successfully conveyed
Indonesia's stance," he said on Tuesday on the sidelines of a
seminar themed Indonesia towards a true democracy: Opportunities
and challenges.

Juwono, who is to assume an ambassadorial post in London, said
that Sweden was referring to its own laws in handling the issue
and so Indonesia could not take action against Hasan Tiro, the
alleged top leader of GAM, and other rebellious Acehnese figures,
if they were not found to be in violation of Swedish law.