Sweden urged to keep pressure on GAM

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.