Vanuatu denies supporting GAM

Vanuatu denies supporting GAM

PORT VILA: Vanuatu's Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Serge Vohor denied on Friday reports that his government has allowed proindependence rebels from the Indonesian province of Aceh to establish an office in the small South Pacific nation.

Indonesian officials were angered on Wednesday by a claim by representatives from the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that they had opened an office in Vanuatu.

But Vohor dismissed the claim.

"I can confirm that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has not received any official request to establish an office in Vanuatu," he said.

"Even if one were submitted, it would have to go before the Council of Ministers for discussion before any decision was made. The statement from GAM is inaccurate," he said.

Exiled GAM leader Malik Mahmood, in a statement from Sweden this week, said his "government" and Vanuatu had officially established diplomatic relations on Aug. 17, which is also Indonesia's Independence Day.

Mahmood claimed that in a ceremony attended by Vanuatu's Deputy PM Serge Vohor last Sunday, "the joint Chanceries of the Embassies of Aceh, Papua and Maluku" were officially established.

While Vanuatu allowed the West Papuans to establish a "people's representative office" here in February this year, it has not officially granted any similar facility to the Acehnese or Maluku separatist movements. -- AFP