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| Southeast Asia | |
| Indonesia frees hundreds of Aceh rebel prisoners | |
| 2005-09-01 | |
| JANTHO, Indonesia - Tears of joy flowed at jails in Indonesia Wednesday as authorities freed more than 1,400 rebel Acehnese prisoners, meeting a key condition of an historic peace pact. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed a decree late Tuesday granting the amnesty to members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), as required under the August 15 peace accord between the government and the separatist guerrillas. Teuku Darwin, head of the provincial justice ministry in Aceh, told AFP that 1,424 GAM prisoners across Indonesia were released, including 958 in Aceh.
Dozens of detainees from Bandung jail transited Jakarta on their way home wearing Indonesiaâs colourful batik shirts and nametags, including four of GAMâs most senior members in the country. The four -- Tengku Kamaruzzaman, Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki, Nashiruddin bin Ahmad and Muhammad Usman bin Lampo Awe -- were among 74 Bandung prisoners who were released. They were arrested for treason in 2003 when they were about to fly to Tokyo to attend an emergency meeting to salvage a peace pact signed in December 2002 that eventually crumbled. The amnesty, which under the peace deal had to be granted to prisoners by Wednesday at the latest, was granted to all GAM members whether they are detained and serving jail sentences or are currently free. Members convicted of crimes unrelated to the separatist movement are not eligible. The peace agreement, signed in Finland after six months of largely secret negotiations, saw GAM drop its long-held demand for independence for a form of local self-government and agree to disarm and demobilise its fighters. Indonesia promised in return to withdraw its non-local security forces by the end of the year and allow the creation of political parties in Aceh. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |