 Senior Indonesian officials and separatist rebels have met to discuss reconstruction of the tsunami-devastated region of Aceh. Leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), fighting for the region's independence for three decades, and Indonesian officials held talks for the first time in two years in Helsinki, Finland, on Friday. United in grief, both sides discussed how to work together to rebuild after the 26 December disaster in which 230,000 Acehnese died or went missing. Malik Mahmud, prime minister of GAM's government-in-exile, which has been based in Stockholm since the struggle began in 1976, said he was pleased by the talks. "Everything is going good. At the moment I cannot reveal the content. I am happy," he said after 12 hours of talks. |