Free Aceh Movement

GAM

12/12/2006

The Free Aceh Movement, like all salafi Islamic organizations, seeks to establish an Islamic theocracy. They operate in the province of Aceh, located on the northern tip of the Indonesian Island of Sumatra. They are covetous of Aceh's natural gas reserves which have been exploited by the central government in Jakarta. The Islamic Indonesian regime confiscates 90% of the revenue. The GAM routinely targets natural gas facilities of Exxon-Mobil.

The Free Aceh Movement also opposes the brutal actions of the Indonesian Islamic military, known as the TNI, which has murdered hundreds of thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims and forced the mass exodus of many more from the province. The fact that the Indonesian government is ruthless, however, does not make GAM good.

The Free Aceh Movement is an OPEC beneficiary, receiving funding from Iran and Libya. Bakhtiar Abdullah is the leading spokesman for the Islamic terrorist group. After living in exile in Sweden for over 25 years, Abdullah returned to Aceh in October 2005.

Hasan Di Tiro commands the GAM's Aceh Sumatra National Liberation Front from Nordsborg, Sweden, a suburb of Stockholm. GAM splintered when Di Tiro chose his son, Karim Hasan, to take over the organization, a choice that was challenged by Daud Paneuek. Husaini Hasan and Hasan di Tiro were both deserters from the Indonesian Army.

U.S. policy toward the GAM has been influenced by the genocide in East Timor and the current war on terror. Eager to restore links with the Indonesian military after 1999, the U.S. pressured the GAM into accepting a political settlement based on autonomy within Indonesia, while assuring Jakarta that America supported Indonesian territorial integrity. Washington then advanced counter-terrorism training for the pro-terrorist TNI - an Islamic army which has murdered as many as 700,000 Indonesians and 300,000 Timorese.

The Islamic Free Aceh Movement continues to attack Indonesian security personnel and to terrorize civilians, especially Christians. In 2005, however a peace agreement was proposed. But keep in mind that such an accord would be with Muslims with a long history of mass murders and terrorism so there is some chance that their lack of morality might lead them to renege on the treaty when it was in their interests.