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Aceh rebel leaders released

11 May 2003, BANDA ACEH - Four Aceh rebel representatives held by Indonesian police as suspects in bomb attacks were released on Sunday, a move that may offer a glimmer of hope for last-ditch efforts to save a crumbling peace deal. Indonesia has said if Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels do not meet government officials by Monday to resolve differences over the agreement they face an all-out military offensive.
The four, detained by police since Friday, were senior representatives of GAM on the joint security committee (JSC) overseeing the peace pact in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province. On Saturday, police had said the four were officially suspects in relation to bombings in Jakarta and Medan, a step that brought condemnation from other GAM leaders.
Aceh police spokesman Sayed Hoesainy told reporters: "To take into consideration that they are still under the JSC, we temporarily returned them to the JSC and HDC while we wait for the government's decision" on whether to stick with the peace deal. He said despite the release the four remained suspects. The HDC is the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Centre, which brokered the December peace agreement now in danger of collapse.
HDC officials in Banda Aceh, the provincial capital 1,700 km (1,060 miles) northwest of Jakarta, said on Sunday they were making eleventh-hour efforts to save the peace pact. "We're still talking with both parties today and will wait and see. We hope the best can be achieved," David Gorman, who heads the centre's operations in Aceh, told Reuters.
HDC officials denied there had been a withdrawal from Aceh by its own staff or international monitors helping supervise implementation of the peace deal. There were reports on Saturday that some, including Thai and Filipino troops, would leave over the weekend. In Malaysia, across the Strait of Malacca from Aceh on Sumatra's northern tip, the New Sunday Times said armed forces were on the alert for a possible influx of refugees if fighting resumes in the troubled province.
Decades of simmering conflict between the Jakarta-based government and GAM have left more than 10,000 dead in resource-rich Aceh, mostly civilians. The peace pact called for GAM to start laying down its arms and the military to withdraw to defensive positions, and initially sharply reduced violence. But recently it has been increasingly troubled, with each side accusing the other of violations and Indonesia moving reinforcements to the province for the promised offensive against GAM if the deal falls through.
On Saturday in Stockholm, Zaini Abdullah, one of GAM's key peace negotiators, said mediation talks there with Henry Dunant Centre representatives showed some hope for a peaceful solution. "The result of the meeting was very good," he said. Banda Aceh office worker Syarkawi said he hoped a renewed military offensive could be avoided. "I think it would be terrifying. The trauma we have from the previous military operation had not gone away and now we have another new operation to come."