INDONESIA FREE ACEH MOVEMENT CELEBRATIONS

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(4 Dec 2000) Indonesian/Nat • • There were peaceful celebrations in the Aceh province of Jeunib, on Monday as villagers marked the 24th anniversary of their struggle for independence. • • The Free Aceh Movement raised rebel flags, vowing to keep up their 24 year-long fight for freedom. • • The leader of the Free Aceh Movement Tengku, Abdullah Syafi'i, continued the appeal to the international community to support the Acehnese push for an independent nation. • • However, elsewhere around Aceh, the celebrations weren't as peaceful. • • Indonesian police forcibly removed hundreds of separatist flags, as rebels celebrated in the province. • • Villagers said security forces shot at rebel flags hoisted secretly overnight along main roads before tearing them down. • • While in the north of the province, police say an officer was shot dead and another injured in a gunbattle with rebels. • • Witnesses say a motorcyclist was gunned down by security forces on Sunday night in Indrajaya district, east of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh. • • But Superintendent Kusbini of the joint police-military task force blamed rebels of the Free Aceh Movement for the man's death, saying they had attacked three military outposts during the night. • • The authorities have warned they would crack down on any public celebrations marking December 4, 1976, the day when separatists unilaterally declared the province's independence from Indonesia. • • Since then, efforts by security forces to suppress the insurgents have largely backfired. • • Although at least 5,500 people have died as a result of the war during the past decade, the separatists have managed to attract wide public support in the province of 4.1 million people. • • Rebels maintain that the region on the northern tip of Sumatra island has become a virtual colony of Indonesia's dominant island of Java. • • They claim that Aceh's substantial oil and natural gas reserves have been exploited by Jakarta's political and military elite and that few benefits have returned to the region. • • Indonesia's leaders have consistently ruled out demands for an independent Aceh, fearing it would lead to the disintegration of the sprawling, ethnically diverse Southeast Asian nation. • • President Abdurrahman Wahid has instead offered the staunchly Muslim province wide-ranging autonomy and the possibility of introducing Islamic Sharia law. • • SOUNDBITE: (Indonesian) • I'm asking the international community to help us and to support the Free Aceh Movement for the democracy and sovereignty of the Acehnese nation. • SUPERCAPTION: Tengku Abdullah Syafi'i, Leader of Free Aceh Movement • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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