Police in Sweden have arrested three leaders of Indonesia's separatist Free Aceh Movement after raiding their homes in a Stockholm suburb.
The Free Aceh Movement, or GAM has been waging a separatist campaign against the Indonesian government for twenty-five years, with both sides accused of atrocities against civilians. The Indonesian government has welcomed the arrests, after lobbying Sweden to restrict the activities of GAM's exiled leaders – branding them terrorists for allegedly directing the fighting in Aceh.
Presenter/Interviewer: Sen Lam
Speakers: Thomas Lindstrand, Sweden's state prosecutor, Bakhtiar Abdullah, spokesman, the Free Aceh Movement leadership in Stockholm
Lindstrand: I cannot answer for the whole of Sweden, but as far as I'm concerned I received last summer a lot of documents from the Prosecutor General and the documents had been handed over from the previous Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas when he visited the Prosecutor General in June last year. And after I have received these documents I studied them of course and then I found that the Indonesians had more evidence to submit and I asked them for these documents, these new documents. And then in February this year I decided to initiate a preliminary investigation.
Lam: Jakarta of course has been trying to prove that the GAM leadership organised armed operations from the Stockholm suburb of Alby, where the detained men lived. Have you uncovered more information about this? Was that why you decided to proceed?
Lindstrand: We have studied, I have studied the material and we have also we made a trip in March to Indonesia and we questioned a lot of people, all these investigative measures have resulted in what took place yesterday, and now it's a question about what the detainees will say and what the other materials will show.
Lam: So has a decision been made then to prosecute these detainees with some kind of breach of international law or international crimes?
Lindstrand: No because for the moment there is a preliminary investigation and when that investigation is finished then I must decide whether I shall go to court, to a trial to prosecute them or not. First the preliminary investigation, and that investigation I think will take some time.
Lam: But for a senior prosecutor such as yourself to be involved, surely you must see some signs or some significant evidence that might have been uncovered?
Lindstrand: Yes I see some evidence, but the suspects have not declared their opinions, they have not been questioned yet. At this point I think it's not meaningful to have an idea of about how it all will end.
Lam: Were the detentions driven by diplomatic pressure from Jakarta? What do you say to critics who claim that Stockholm is taking this action because of Jakarta's diplomatic pressure?
Lindstrand: I consider it to be an insult. I don't do anything because of diplomatic pressure, that's an insult if anybody claims that.
Lam: So you will be going purely by rule of law and to see whether or not these men have indeed breached some kind of international law?
Lindstrand: Of course.
Lam: Did you uncover any evidence that might have pointed to illegal activities within Sweden itself committed by these men?
Lindstrand: Of course I cannot reveal anything about things like that to you because the investigation is going on right now.
Lam: But you have reason enough to proceed?
Lindstrand: I have reason enough to proceed yes.