---------------------------------------------------------- FREE Subscribe/UNsubscribe Indonesia Daily News Online go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 -0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0 Free Email @KotakPos.com visit: http://my.kotakpos.com/ ---------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press December 2, 1999 Exiled Aceh Leader Wants UN To Hold Referendum BOTKYRKA, Sweden (AP)--An exiled Aceh rebel leader called on the U.N. Thursday to hold a referendum similar to the one that led to East Timor's independence. Speaking in an interview in a Stockholm suburb, Hasan M. di Tiro said the rebels would accept nothing less than full independence for Aceh but that they had no plans to hold a unilateral referendum. "The U.N. has to do it because we have no means to do it," he said. The 75-year-old rebel leader, who suffered a stroke about two years ago and has some difficulty speaking, dismissed previous statements by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid that he would be willing to hold a referendum on whether Islamic law should be imposed in the staunchly Muslim territory. "It has nothing to do with that," Hasan said. They have to get out." Hundreds of thousands of Acehnese took to the streets last month to press demands for the independence of their oil- and gas-rich province. There has been some speculation in Indonesia that Hasan, who fled to Sweden three years after his Dec. 4, 1976, declaration of Aceh's independence, has lost authority over the rebel group as the conflict escalates in the far-flung archipelago. Pointing at tapes of his speeches that have been smuggled into the province and a written appeal that will be distributed on the rebel group's anniversary, Hasan, who often struggled to speak but otherwise looked healthy, shook his head challenging the implication. "There is no other legitimate leader in Aceh," his spokesman Bakhtiar Abdullah said. "The loyalty of our people has never changed." "My forefathers have been killed by the Dutch - now it's the Javanese," Hasan said, pointing to three portraits on the wall above his desk. Hasan and other activists at the Free Aceh Movement's headquarters in exile repeated assurances that the rebels planned peaceful rallies to commemorate the group's anniversary on Saturday. But they expressed concerns that pro-Indonesian forces might have other plans. "It's a grand, big day," Abdullah said. "We have received reports that they're going to sabotage the demonstrations to provide an excuse for military force." Wahid opposes independence for the province, but he repeatedly has said he would like to use peaceful means to resolve the crisis and has resisted military pressure to declare a state of emergency. He also has said that he would send a personal envoy to Stockholm to meet with Hasan. Hasan said he had received no such offer. He declined to say whether the rebels would consider meeting with a governmental delegation. "We'll see in a bit, however we haven't heard from them," he said. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 6 Dec 1999 jam 07:59:12 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
