Swedish law enforcers question JSX bombers, ex GAM hostage

Swedish law enforcers question JSX bombers, ex GAM hostage

P.C. Naommy, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Swedish prosecutors and police questioned on Saturday five
Acehnese, including two convicted of the Jakarta Stock Exchange
(JSX) bombing in 2000, as part of their investigation into Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) leader Hasan Tiro, who lives in exile in
Sweden.

The Swedish law enforcers also heard the account of Cut
Safrida, one of two women who walked free in January after being
held hostage by GAM for seven months.

"I just told them my experience during the ordeal, nothing
more," a tearful Safrida told the press at Cipinang Penitentiary
in East Jakarta.

Safrida was the only person willing to speak about the
questioning, which took the Swedish team seven hours.

During the questioning, the team was accompanied by three
officials from the Office of the Coordinating Minister for
Political and Security Affairs, two officers from the Jakarta
Police and an interpreter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The team is in Indonesia to gather information on Tiro and
other GAM leaders with Swedish citizenship.

The three Acehnese prisoners questioned were Ibrahim Hasan and
Ramli, who were brought from the Cirebon penitentiary in West
Java, and Irwan from Nusa Kambangan penitentiary in Central Java.

Ibrahim, a former Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad)
soldier, was convicted for the JSX bombing and sentenced to life
imprisonment, as was Irwan, a former Army's Special Forces
(Kopassus) member.

Ramli, who deserted from the Aceh Military Command, was
convicted of selling arms to the rebels and sentenced to 12 years
in prison.

Two former GAM members also questioned were Daelami, 30, who
claimed to be the GAM governor of Takengon, and Maulidan, 46, a
former guerrilla who once underwent military training in Libya.
Both of them have left GAM and pledged allegiance to Indonesia.

Bambang Krisbanu, warden of Cipinang Penitentiary, said the
men were questioned one by one and were divided into two groups
in order to save time.

He said Daelami and Maulidan had arrived in Jakarta from Banda
Aceh hours before the questioning, while Ibrahim, Ramli and Irwan
arrived on Friday.

A source, however, said the last three prisoners had been in
Jakarta for a week. He said Ibrahim and Ramli arrived from
Cirebon on March 13 at 9:15 a.m. while Irwan arrived from Nusa
Kambangan penitentiary on March 14.

The Swedish team and top officials from the Office of the
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs will
hold a joint press conference on Sunday at 10 a.m,