Text messages steer war from Sweden
Text messages steer war from Sweden
Anna Peltola, Reuters, Stockholm
In a grim Stockholm suburb, a group of men meet daily to plot the strategy of a guerrilla war fought 10,000 kilometers (6,210 miles) away in separatist Aceh, where Indonesia launched a military campaign two weeks ago.
The mobile phones of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders bleep as they receive text message reports from Aceh, the oil- and gas-rich province on the northern tip of the Sumatra island enveloped in a war after peace talks broke down.
Sweden is home to GAM's top commanders headed by Mahmood Malik, whom the rebels consider their prime minister, and Abdullah Bakhtiar, the chief spokesman. Both were part of GAM's negotiation team at the latest unsuccessful peace talks in Japan.
Bakhtiar lives with his wife, the daughter of a former GAM commander killed in battle in 1982, their two children and his mother-in-law in a drab apartment complex housing mainly immigrants.
He said he recently heard that his brother-in-law had been arrested on the island of Pulau Nasi on the northern tip of Aceh, and there had since been no news of him.
"Of course this hit my mother-in-law very hard, even though she's a very strong lady," Bakhtiar said.
Malik himself was a warrior before coming to Sweden.
"We have fought them (Jakarta) for 27 years, and we are fighting for a just cause," he told Reuters. "We ask for independence to rule our land. We don't want anything else from Indonesia."
Even though Aceh is staunchly Muslim, the separatists say they do not plan to build an Islamic state.
More than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict in Aceh since 1976, and the separatists vow to continue the battle until they win independence for the former Dutch colony.
There are around 50 Acehnese living in Sweden. Many arrived as political refugees in the early 1980s and are now living and working as Swedish citizens.
"We are always ready to return. Our hearts are always there. But if we were all to evacuate, the world would not know what's happening there," said Bakhtiar, who works for the Swedish postal service.
Sultan Hasan di Tiro, whom GAM considers Aceh's head of state, also lives in Sweden but has given up day to day decision making because of old age and poor health.
Tiro, whose grandfather, great uncles and cousins died as rulers of Aceh fighting the Dutch and who has written a lengthy play about its history, declared the province independent in 1976.
From their homes in Stockholm, Malik and his men steer both military and political action in Aceh.
GAM says it has a military commander in charge of soldiers and a governor handling political affairs in each district.
"Every day we receive a report from these on what is going on. I monitor what is going on," Malik said.
Even with Indonesia planning to step up its military campaign, scores of people deserting the regional capital Banda Aceh and international aid organizations warning of a looming humanitarian crisis, GAM said it had no immediate plans to return to the negotiating table with Jakarta.
"What happens next depends on Indonesia and the international community," Malik said.
GAM says five or six of its guerrillas have died in the latest campaign, but Indonesia says GAM casualties are much higher.
The separatists say 70 civilians and hundreds of government soldiers have been killed, but there has been no visible evidence or independent confirmation of this.
Malik, who came to Sweden in the late 1980s, is now 63 and confident he will see Aceh independent in his lifetime.
"I think Indonesia will collapse soon," he said. "The only thing prolonging the process is the international help Indonesia is receiving. Otherwise it would have collapsed long ago."