Movement Free Aceh
The Free Aceh Movement ( Acehnese Gerakan Aceh Merdeka , shortly GAM), also known as Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front (ASNLF), was an armed liberation movement in the province of Aceh in northern Sumatra , the independence of the Province of Indonesia sought before the A peace agreement was signed with the Indonesian government in Helsinki on August 15, 2005. The Indonesian government officially named the group " Movement to Destroy the Security of Aceh ".
In 1959, the government of the Aceh region granted a special status favoring Islamic traditions and laws. The centralization tendencies of the Suharto government later counteracted this and prompted the GAM to raise up in the 1970s, during which it proclaimed Aceh's independence and self-determination in 1976 .
In essence, the supposed threat to the Acehnese religion and culture from the neocolonial central government and the increasing number of migrants from Java were defended. Another point was the unequal distribution of the income from Aceh's natural resources (petroleum).
At first the guerrilla war was unsuccessful for the GAM, and by 1977 the government forces had almost completely destroyed the group. The group renewed its activities in the 1980s, apparently with financial support from Libya and Iran , and recruited about 3,500 soldiers. The government's repression generated opposition and hostility among the population and thus benefited GAM more. 1991 to 1995 the region received the status of a military operation area .
Mediation efforts by both sides, although favored by the fall of Suharto, were cut short, and both the military and the GAM were frequently charged with human rights abuses .
In 1996 the Indonesian government announced the end of the GAM. The Indonesian military ( Tentara Nasional Indonesia ) did not withdraw from the region; reports of torture and killings continued. A troop withdrawal was announced in 1999, but it is estimated that the number of soldiers during the reign of Megawati Sukarnoputri rose to 35,000 by 2002. Assaults by the security forces in 2001 and 2002 claimed several thousand civilian lives.
The leaders of the GAM, Hasan di Tiro (a descendant of the former Sultans of Aceh) and the MP Zaini Abdullah , went into exile in Sweden . The Indonesian spokesman for the group is Abdullah Syafei'i Dimatang . In 1999 it was reported that the group had split into two camps, ASNLF (the original group) and the Free Aceh Movement Government Council (MP-GAM). This has been denied by GAM spokespersons, but widely claimed in the Indonesian media.
In March 2003, the Jakarta government officially declared the GAM a separatist group .
In connection with the tsunami disaster on December 26, 2004, the GAM declared a ceasefire . In return, the Indonesian government withdrew restrictions on aid organizations and foreign journalists in North Sumatra.
There are disputes with other separatist groups on Aceh over the procedures and the monopoly of GAM as the government's negotiating partner.
On August 15, 2005, GAM and the Indonesian government signed a peace treaty in the Finnish capital Helsinki . Since then, 30,000 soldiers from the Indonesian military and 15,000 police officers have been withdrawn from Aceh, and the GAM surrendered its weapons. The Aceh Monitoring Mission, led by the European Union, monitored the actions and the reintegration of former combatants.
literature
- Antje Missbach: freedom fighter or trader? The armed struggle of the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM) taking into account classic and new guerrilla theories ISBN 3-8325-0789-2