Chief prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand in Stockholm has decided to launch a preliminary investigation against leaders of the free Aceh movement, GAM, which resides in Sweden.
The move follows several Indonesian requests to the Swedish government to crack down on GAM leaders in Sweden.
Indonesia accuses the Sweden based GAM leaders of leading the insurgents fighting against regular Indonesian troops in Aceh province, northern Sumatra.
Several GAM leaders in Sweden are Swedish citizens and can not be expelled to Indonesia.
The Swedish government’s official line has always been to defend the rights of GAM members in Sweden to have their own opinion as long as they not break any laws in Sweden.
At the same time has the Swedish government made clear it do not support GAM’s fight for independence.
Last December did Indonesia send over a new lot of material, which Jakarta meant was evidence against GAM leaders in Sweden, to the prosecutor’s office in Stockholm.
GAM wants to make Aceh a free nation. After a brief round of peace talks last year fighting broke out again and the intensity of this war has increased ever since.
