National

GAM Hands Over Two Pistols to Meet Target
Tuesday, 20 December, 2005 | 10:27 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Banda Aceh:To meet the target of 840 weapons handed over and accepted by the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), based on the Helsinki MoU, the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) handed over two more weapons at 4.15pm Western Indonesian time on Monday (19/12) at the Lhong Raya stadium in Aceh Besar.

On Monday morning (19/12), the GAM handed over 35 firearms, 33 of which were accepted.

In total, GAM has handed over 1,021 weapons and the AMM has accepted 838 of them, while the rest were refused.

“We are still lacking two weapons. We will carry out efforts to resolve this matter,” said Irwandi Yusuf, the GAM representative on the AMM.

According to Yusuf, GAM has carried out efforts to hand over the two weapons in order to fulfill the target of 840 weapons.

One weapon arrived late at the handing over site, while the other weapon came from Sigli, Pidie regency.

“We will ask for the weapons confiscated by the police following the MoU,” said Yusuf.

Yusuf said that the confiscated weapons had not yet been destroyed because they were still being used as evidence. “But, the most important thing, the weapons have been accepted by the AMM,” stated Yusuf.

By handing over the remaining two weapons, Yusuf said, this means the GAM has fulfilled the 840 weapons received by the AMM.

The AMM, the Indonesian government and GAM will conduct a meeting on Monday night (19/12) to discuss the end of the weapons handing over. (Adi Warsidi-Tempo News Room)