Sweden urged to keep pressure on GAM
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta
Despite the Swedish court's decision to release the leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Indonesian government was optimistic that the cases against the exiled men would go ahead.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa said on Saturday that the court's ruling in favor of both the self-styled GAM prime minister Malik Mahmood, 64, and self-styled GAM foreign minister Zaini Abdullah, 63, was purely a technical matter.
It had no bearing whatsoever on the substantive issue at hand; that the two are being charged by Swedish prosecutors with breaching international law, he added.
"Of course, we would have preferred that the court accept a request by prosecutors to extend the detention of the suspects beyond the three-day period," Marty said.
Last Friday, the Huddinge District Court, south of Stockholm, turned down Chief Prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand's request that the two exiled rebel leaders be held behind bars for two weeks. They were arrested last Tuesday by Swedish police.
Hasan Tiro, 80, GAM's cofounder who has been exiled since 1979 and has become a Swedish citizen, was not taken into custody because of health reasons. He, however, was also declared a suspect by the Swedish prosecutors.
Zaini also has Swedish citizenship, while Malik has a Swedish residence permit and Singaporean citizenship.
The three men are also suspected in a case of arson and kidnapping committed in a suburb south of the Swedish capital, Lindstrand was quoted by DPA as saying.
Lindstrand and other Swedish prosecutors have been investigating GAM and its exiled leaders since February. They visited Indonesia and went to Aceh in a bid to collect data and question Acehnese witnesses.
The team, however, was unable to question local GAM commanders, including commander-in-chief Muzakkir Manaf and spokesman Sofyan Dawood, for security reasons.
The Swedish court's order to release Hasan and Zaini also irked government authorities in the troubled province.
Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh, who is also the civil emergency administrator, and local military commander Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said they would provide more evidence if deemed necessary to bring the exiled GAM leaders to court.
National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said Saturday he could send interpreters to assist Swedish prosecutors to clarify documents that had been seized from the exiled leaders' homes.
"Some of the documents are written in Acehnese. We will send interpreters if the (Swedish) prosecutors ask us to do so," he said.
Da'i earlier sent three Indonesian officers to Sweden to take part in the investigation, but Tiro, Zaini and Hasan refused to speak with them.
GAM has been fighting since 1976 for the independence of Aceh, a land of about 4.2 million of population with a large amount of oil and natural gas reserves.
The military claims about 5,000 rebels have been killed, captured or have surrendered during a year-long military operation to crush the movement. Human rights activists say many of those killed or captured were civilians.