BANDA ACEH (Indonesia), Oct 11: Hasan di Tiro, founder of the former rebel group GAM in Indonesia’s Aceh, returned to the once restive province on Saturday after 30 years in exile, calling for everyone to help keep the peace.

His return to the island of Sumatra came a day after Finland’s former president Martti Ahtisaari won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in global peae-making including in Aceh.

“Praise God, I am grateful because I have returned to Aceh,” a tearful di Tiro told a crowd of several thousand at the black-domed grand mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Di Tiro, who is on his late seventies and understood to be in frail health, fled to Sweden after declaring Aceh independent in 1976, a move that triggered a long-running conflict in Indonesia’s westernmost province.

“I urge Acehnese to maintain and keep the peace,” Malik Mahmood, a former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) prime minister said in speech read on behalf of di Tiro.

Di Tiro also called on the government to ensure the welfare of the people of Aceh, particularly those who had suffered from the decades of conflict as well as the devastating 2004 tsunami.

The Dec 26 earthquake and tsunami left more than 170,000 people dead or missing in the province, but also proved a key factor pushing the government and rebels to reach a peace deal.

“The cost of war is expensive, but the cost of keeping the peace is more expensive,” Mahmood said. About 15,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict in the resource-rich province of four million people before a truce was reached with the rebels in August 2005, facilitated by Ahtisaari.

Muchtar, who was among a crowd waiting to see di Tiro at the grand mosque, said he had travelled from Central Aceh.

“His arrival is special for me because I really admire him, especially his struggle for independence in Aceh in the past,” said Muchtar, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

The peace agreement has generally been regarded as successful although there are concerns elections next year could fan tensions in the province that still sometimes sees sporadic violence after decades of conflict.

A provincial police spokesman said a grenade was thrown by an unidentified motor cyclist at a car on Friday evening, wounding one person in North Aceh.

—Reuters