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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The founder of Aceh's separatist rebel movement voiced his commitment to the troubled peace process Saturday as he made an emotional homecoming after nearly 30 years in exile.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) founder Hassan di Tiro was greeted by thousands of cheering supporters and former guerrillas as he flew into the capital of the war-torn and tsunami-scarred Indonesian province for a two-week visit.
Di Tiro, aged 83 and now a Swedish citizen, cried as he embraced his elderly sister and kissed the ground after being helped to kneel on an Islamic prayer mat on the tarmac at Banda Aceh's airport.
It is the first time he has set foot on home soil since he fled to Sweden in 1979, and comes as political tensions mount in the province ahead of elections in April.
From the airport he went to the historic Grand Mosque in central Banda Aceh where up to 70,000 people, including many of his ex-guerrilla fighters, had gathered since Thursday to see their hero.
An old and frail man of few words, he shouted "Allahu akbar (God is greater)" and waved as the crowd surged forward to the stage on the football pitch-sized lawn in front of the black domes of the mosque.
"Never before in the history of Aceh, as long as it has been under colonisation and occupation by foreign nations, have the people obtained freedom and peace throughout like this moment," di Tiro said in a speech read out by Malik Mahmud.
Malik Mahmud was the chief GAM negotiator in a 2005 autonomy pact with Indonesia that saw the rebels give up their weapons in return for power-sharing.
"This is the time for us to rebuild Aceh," he said in the national Bahasa Indonesia language on di Tiro's behalf.
Di Tiro praised the 2005 agreement as bringing "momentum" to the healing of Aceh and thanked Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the international community for helping to rebuild Aceh after the tsunami.
Di Tiro's declaration of independence from Indonesia in 1976 sparked a three-decade civil war that claimed 15,000 lives and left deeply Islamic Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, in ruins.
But it was the terrible devastation of the Asian tsunami, which killed about 170,000 people in the province, that prompted him and other GAM leaders to agree to the pact with Indonesia.
That deal was brokered in part by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.
"People have come from all over Aceh. They are happy to be here just to see (di Tiro) for that split second. His heart has always been in Aceh," said Bakhtiar Abdullah, another former GAM negotiator.
"There are people who were very loyal to him who would die for him, and they have never seen him before. They are still loyal to him and they would do anything for him."
Authorities stepped up security amid concerns that his return could ignite violence -- either between Aceh's fractious political parties or against the Indonesian military -- as tensions brew ahead of provincial elections in April.
Some GAM loyalists complained of being pelted with stones as they drove into Banda Aceh in huge conveys from outlying districts, but there were no serious incidents as di Tiro addressed the crowd on Saturday.
Pickup trucks packed with farmers and ex-guerrillas began pouring into the city on Thursday bearing flags of the Aceh Party, GAM's new political vehicle which is expected to dominate parliament after the polls.
Officials from all post-war Aceh's main parties said they hoped di Tiro would use his stay to strengthen the peace process, which is being tested by political intimidation, dissatisfaction among ex-combatants and dwindling aid.
A spokesman for the Indonesian foreign ministry on Friday characterised the homecoming as a "social visit" and said Jakarta had gone the "extra mile to assist."
But he also revealed Jakarta's sensitivity over di Tiro's visit, saying no one should confuse Aceh with Papua province, where activists still face life in jail for waving the Papuan separatist flag.
"We would not want to compare Aceh and Papua... We have closed the chapter of the separatist movement (in Aceh) and we no longer talk about it as an issue," the spokesman, Teuku Faizasyah, said.
- AFP /ls
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