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GAM denounces al-Qaeda affiliates' presence in Aceh
Separatist rebels from the Indonesian province of Aceh have deplored the presence there of two militant Islamic groups helping survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami, saying they were using aid to push a religious agenda.The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) said in a statement from its government in exile in Stockholm that the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) and the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI) "would squander scarce resources". The statement branded the two groups as "criminal organisations" and said they were not welcome in Aceh. It said "the actions and words of FPI and MMI contradict Islamic teachings and the tolerance and faith of Acehnese Muslims". The self-styled prime minister of the government-in-exile, Malik Mahmud, told Reuters that their brand of fundamentalist Islam was not acceptable in Aceh, which fought Dutch colonialists and Japan's World War II occupation and whose campaign is fuelled by a centuries-old nationalist movement and not by religion. "What we don't like is they make people more confused about the situation under the pretext of giving aid and give their version of Islam, which we think is very radical," he said in a telephone interview from Stockholm. "They say things like the tsunami happened because Indonesia did not accept sharia law in Aceh," Malik said. "Our organisation is legal, nobody has the right to stop us," MMI chairman Irfan S Awwas told Reuters. "We are there solely for humanitarian purposes, for our fellow Indonesians." The FPI was one of many small militant groups that sprang up after the 1998 fall of former president Suharto and made a splash by attacking nightclubs, brothels and other entertainment venues deemed an affront to Islam. The group has recruited volunteers to go to the Indonesian islands of Sulawesi and the Moluccas, where Christian-Muslim clashes have killed thousands in recent years. FPI leader Habib Rizieq denied GAM's assertion that the groups were working with the Indonesian army. "We go there purely for humanitarian activities, and when the job is done, we will go home." GAM, which has been fighting since 1976 to separate Aceh from Indonesian rule, accused the government of helping the two groups to travel to Aceh. "At a time when the international community is so generously assisting the people of Aceh, the government is wasting valuable funds by assisting these criminal organisations to travel to and stay in Aceh," the GAM statement said. Aceh remains under a civil emergency following a year of martial law aimed at crushing GAM rebels. Access for foreign aid groups and media was heavily restricted until the province was struck by the magnitude 9 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-01-11 |
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