Posted 26 July 2006 @ 14:13
BANDA ACEH, 26 July 2006 - The Indonesian navy has arrested three former separatist rebels for pirating ships carrying aid for tsunami survivors in the country's far-west Aceh province, a senior commanding officer said on Wednesday. The three men, from two different groups, were caught in the north Aceh city of Lhokseumawe on July 18, two days after their latest operation, Rear Admiral Moekhlas Sidik, chief of the Indonesian Navy's Western Fleet, told reporters.
"We are still on alert for more action from their groups because they use weapons like rifles and grenade launchers in their operations," Sidik said. The December 26, 2004 tsunami left around 170,000 people dead or missing in Aceh and half a million more homeless. But the tragedy also led Indonesia and the rebellious Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to sign a truce aimed at ending almost 30 years of fighting that killed more than 15,000 people, mostly civilians.
The truce signed in Helsinki last August required GAM to hand over its weapons, and Indonesia to slash the number of soldiers and policemen stationed in Aceh. The final GAM decommissioning and Indonesian withdrawal took place in January. The piracy arrests have pushed Indonesian authorities to investigate how many more guns are still in the hands of former GAM guerrillas, Sidik said.
"Those kind of arms should have been destroyed in line with the truce," the admiral said. "Today, we are moving to hunt more members of these two groups." Unlike past attempts at peace which generally failed in short older, the Helsinki truce has thus far held.
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