Patrick McLoughlin, Stockholm – Sweden on Sunday rejected suggestions that the Stockholm-based leader of the separatist rebels for the Indonesian province of Aceh be expelled from the country to face trial in Indonesia.
"No definitely not. As long as they do not do anything against Swedish law and do not violate international law we are not going to do anything," Foreign Ministry spokesman Jan Janonius told Reuters. He was responding to suggestions in Indonesia during the weekend that the leader of the Stockholm-based Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Hasam Tiro, be extradited.
Resources-rich Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, has been the scene of a simmering decades-long rebellion which has killed at least 10,000 people. Talks to resolve the conflict, scheduled for late last month in Geneva, broke off with each side blaming the other.
On Sunday, the Jakarta Post website quoted an "international affairs observer" as saying Tiro should have his Swedish citizenship revoked and be expelled for causing strife in Indonesia.
This followed earlier weekend reports, quoting Indonesian top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who told Kompas daily his government was disappointed with Sweden for failing to recognise that Tiro and other GAM leaders were Swedish citizens who were fomenting trouble in Aceh.
Jakarta said a week ago GAM must cease pushing for independence and begin disarming before talks resume to try to save the faltering December 9 peace agreement. Jakarta gave the rebels between one and two weeks to respond to its terms or a security operation would be launched.
However, A GAM spokesman in Stockholm told Reuters on Sunday however that his movement would not relinquish its goal of an independent Aceh. "There is nothing in the agreement that says we have to renounce independence and accept autonomy in Indonesia," Bakhtiar Abdullah said. He added that GAM remained willing to re-open talks in Geneva, but only on the agenda previous agreed.
Abdullah said if the breakdown in talks failed to be repaired, armed conflict would quickly return to the province. "As far as we are concerned, if the Indonesian government wants war we will defend ourselves," he said. "There will be bloodshed,"