Swedish prosecutors question GAM prisoners

Swedish prosecutors question GAM prisoners

The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Jakarta

Swedish prosecutors have started questioning prisoners of the
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Banda Aceh in a bid to investigate
alleged crimes committed by the separatist leaders now living in
exile in the Scandinavian country.

Arriving under tight security in Banda Aceh on Wednesday, the
team, led by Thomas Lindstrand, immediately held a closed-door
meeting with martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya
before heading for the police headquarters to question GAM
prisoners.

"I told the team that GAM members here have strong links with
GAM leaders in Sweden. All that the rebels have done here was
upon the instruction of Hasan Tiro," Endang said after the
meeting.

The six-member Swedish investigation team, however, refused to
comment further.

Rebel prisoners questioned Wednesday included negotiators
Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba and Teungku Muhammad Usman, and GAM finance
minister Muhammad Usman Lampoh Awe. They are currently serving
prison terms up to 16 years.

The Swedish investigators, who will stay in Banda Aceh until
Sunday, are also slated to visit the Tanjung Gusta penitentiary
in Medan, North Sumatra to interview GAM prisoners serving prison
terms in the province.

The government has pressed Sweden to take action against
alleged GAM leaders, including movement founder Hasan Tiro, for
numerous terrorist attacks in the country.

In Jakarta, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda
expressed hope that the team would come up with the evidence to
send GAM leaders to prison.

The government has also provided a 1,500-page document to
support the investigation, Hassan said.

"From the legal and political point of view, it is
unacceptable that citizens of a certain state wage armed
rebellion in another country," Hassan said.

Commenting on the Swedish investigation team, GAM spokesman
Sofyan Dawood said that he expected the prosecutors to be extra
cautious when interviewing witnesses since "they are not free to
express themselves because they are now under Indonesian
custody."

Sofyan alleged that GAM detainees questioned by the Swedish
team were chosen by the Indonesian military (TNI) and were
promised the reduction of their prison terms, or even freedom, if
they went along with TNI's scenario.

"Failing to do so will result in stern additional punishment,"
Sofyan told The Jakarta Post by phone.

Since the government imposed martial law on Aceh in mid-May
last year and launched a military operation to crush GAM, which
has been struggling for an independent state since 1976, more
than 1,300 guerrillas have been killed, and 2,000 others were
arrested or surrendered.