FIRST GROUP OF FORMER ACEH REBELS LEAVES RE-EDUCATION PROGRAM
By Nurdin Hasan

January 18, 2004 – (AFP) They came here as separatist rebels or sympathizers, but more than 400 Acehnese will leave here Sunday with new job skills and a new commitment to Indonesia, officials hope.

The 438 former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members and supporters who voluntarily surrendered to authorities are the first to complete a five-month
government re-education program.

They are among more than 2,000 guerrillas and their supporters who have been either captured or surrendered since the government launched an all-out military offensive to crush GAM last May.

Those arrested are being brought before the courts on treason and other charges, but the ones who gave themselves up have come here, to a coastal facility previously used to train teachers about 12 kilometres (seven miles) north of the provincial capital, Banda Aceh.

With some of their families watching, the former rebels, dressed in black, lined up in rows for a military-style ceremony on Saturday evening to mark the end of their five-month re-education program.

There were drums, bugle calls and a solemn pledge, read by one participant on behalf of all the others, not to return to GAM even if forced.

Aceh's martial law administrator Major General Endang Suwarya, who attended the ceremony, said the former rebels would be watched.

"We will form a special team to monitor their development so we can know how successful this re-education is, because it's the first," Suwarya said.

A similar program is underway with 180 former rebels in Meulaboh, West Aceh, while more than 600 others who surrendered have just begun training in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, the military said.

Graduates will have to report to their district governments as well as to local military and police. They must ask permission to change their residence.
Military police and provincial officials trained the former rebels not only in loyalty to the state but also in trades such as fishing, farming and tailoring.

Samples of their work -- including a small boat and tailored goods -- were displayed during the ceremony which concluded with graduates hoisting
aloft the military police major who led the program.

Graduates included six women and the GAM "governor" of Sabang island.

"They will be given capital so they can live more appropriately after they return to the community," Suwarya said.

A provincial government source said each would receive Rp 2.5 million (300 dollars).

"I'm sad because I'm saying farewell to my re-educators and other friends," said Musnaini, 23, who said she was a former member of GAM's female force who had re-trained as a tailor.

"Everything went well," she said, leaving with two sewing machines and Rp 1 million.

The military says more than 1,200 guerrillas have been killed during the eight-month Aceh offensive.

In a report last month, Human Rights Watch accused the Indonesian military of pursuing a campaign of killings, kidnappings and beatings of civilians in Aceh, but Indonesia's foreign ministry dismissed the allegations as baseless.

Rebels have also been accused of abuses.

Musnaini said she was too afraid to go home today, and would stay with a brother in a different village.

Received from Joyo Indonesia News

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