Ex-GAM Among Terror Suspects in Aceh: Police

BY FAROUK ARNAZ 
(THE JAKARTA GLOBE)
Jakarta, TAG - Some of the six terror suspects arrested by Aceh Police on Saturday have turned out to be former separatist guerillas, police revealed on Tuesday.
“Not all are former GAM [Free Aceh Movement] but there are some ex-GAM [soldiers] and that’s why they know how to assemble bombs,” a source with the police’s Densus 88 counterterrorism unit told the Jakarta Globe.

The source identified the six as Kamarudin, Mansur, Rizal Mustaqim, Usria, Sulaiman and Jamaludin. He did not say which were the former guerillas, but all will be charged with possession of explosives, for which they could face at least 10 years in jail.

“We’re studying the motive, but basically it’s related to the political climate, the gubernatorial election,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“There are people who are not happy because they aren’t accommodated in this political event,” the source said.

National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Saud Usman Nasution said the terror suspects were arrested in the early hours of Saturday inside a car carrying explosives in Aceh Besar district.

Aceh Police Chief Insp. Gen. Iskandar Hasan previously lamented the fact that they were Acehnese and not outsiders.

“I was hoping the terrorists were not from Aceh, but they turned out to be our brothers from Aceh,” he said on Monday.

He added that although they were low explosives, the bombs were still dangerous.

“These bombs did not explode because we managed to arrest the perpetrators before they were planted,” he said.

Iskandar said the six suspects were arrested in a joint operation between the Aceh Police and National Police for their alleged involvement in series of crimes in the province in recent months.

However, he declined to elaborate on the crimes, saying that police were still building the case against the suspects.

Previously there had been rumors that bombs were going to be detonated when one of the candidates in the gubernatorial election slated for next month passed through Aceh Besar.

The upcoming elections, which have been scheduled for April 9 following a series of delays over political bickering, will see voters across the province turn out to pick a governor, four mayors and 13 district heads.

Iskandar said police had seized 27 guns, several rounds of ammunition and six live explosives in a series of operations held from Feb. 21 through Sunday. They have also detained three people for illegal possession of the firearms.

Previously, Iskandar said many people were still holding on to the explosives and guns left over from when the GAM was still fighting to break the province away from Indonesia. He put the number of such people at between 800 and 1,000.[]