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Wahid denies report on truce with Aceh rebels |
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May 1, 2000 JAKARTA, APR 30 (AP) - President Abdurrahman Wahid has denied a press report that a ceasefire between government forces and separatist rebels in strife-torn Aceh province is imminent.
"I don't know anything about that," Wahid said late Saturday.
He was referring to a report in The Jakarta Post that said Indonesian negotiators and representatives of the Free Aceh Movement were set to conclude a truce.
The daily cited Human Rights Minister Hazballah Saad as saying that the two sides would sign the ceasefire next week in Geneva, Switzerland.
"I don't know what kind of agreement they have reached or whether they have reached agreement or not," Wahid told reporters. "If The Jakarta Post said that, that doesn't mean that it happened."
Hazballah claimed that Indonesian envoys have met three times in recent weeks with members of the insurgent group.
The report could not be independently confirmed Sunday. Government officials in Aceh said they knew nothing about it.
Guerrillas in the province, located on the northern tip of Sumatra island, have been waging a bloody struggle for independence since the mid-1970s.
At least 5,000 people have been killed during the past decade. Fighting has claimed more than 300 lives since the beginning of this year.
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