Dr Leslie McCulloch Speaks at St Ethelburgas. Indonesia – War or Peace in Aceh?

Dr Leslie McCulloch, recently released from an Indonesian jail after 5 months sentence for infringing her visa conditions, will lead a public Round Table discussion at St Ethelburgas Centre for Reconciliation and Peace 13th February 2003 12.00 – 2.00 pm on prospects for peace in Aceh.

A British academic, Leslie McCulloch has travelled on numerous occasions to the Indonesian Province of Aceh, where she was accused of aiding the separatists who have been struggling against the central government for 26 years. Her special research has focused on the deep involvement of the Indonesian military in both the formal and informal economy.
Dr Leslie McCulloch was released on Sunday 9th in Aceh's provincial capital, Banda Aceh, together with her co-detainee Joy Lee Sadler, an American nurse. They were arrested in September on charges that they visited Aceh with tourist visas when the region is restricted to foreigners. The two were also charged with carrying material on the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), an armed separatist group.

The Henri Dunant Centre in Switzerland has brokered the recently announced disarmament agreement but there are major questions as to how the military will react to any diminution in their presence as part of a final peace settlement.

Mr Aguswandi, St Ethelburgas Fellow, from Aceh and now [and] studying at London Metropolitan said ‘We all welcome the release of Leslie and pay particular tribute to her bravery in travelling to Aceh.

Troops have been fighting the rebels since 1976, when the Free Aceh Movement declared the province independent of Indonesia.

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