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Aceh protesters removed from embassy

Source
Agence France Presse - August 6, 1999 (abridged)

Jakarta – Indonesian police early Friday removed nine Acehnese protesters from the grounds of the Netherlands embassy here, where they had been camped for more than 36 hours, one of the protestors said.

"At about 1am a truckload of police officers arrived and a group of them escorted us out of the compound without force," Faisal Putra told AFP. "We did not resist them because we had a pregnant woman among us."

The nine, who dashed into the embassy grounds Wednesday morning when the gates opened to admit an embassy car, had vowed not to budge until their demands for support in their fight for sovereignty were met.

Putra said police were going to load the protesters into the trucks to be taken to Jakarta police headquarters, but they were released when they asked to return to their hotel.

"We asked them to let us go on our own because we wanted to go back to our hotel in central Jakarta where we had stayed before we staged the protest ... and they let us go," he said.

Putra said the Acehnese intended to "relentlessly pursue the Netherlands government" to restore the sovereignty of Aceh by revoking an 1873 Dutch declaration of war against the province, then a free Sultanate.

"We will keep pushing the Dutch government to be responsible for the past actions of their ancestors, even though it was a long time ago," he said.

The group had been invited to meet with Jakarta police chief Major General Nugroho Jayusman later on Friday, Putra said. But he said he did not know why Jayusman had invited them.

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