Indonesia: May 22, 2004

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Violence continues in Aceh, with three rebels dying today, including one of the spokesmen of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The government also admitted that a year of martial law and military activity in Aceh had failed to crush the separatists. A year ago, the government estimated that GAM had 5,251 members and 2,000 firearms. But after a year of fighting, 5,370 GAM members have been killed or captured and 1,075 weapons seized. And there are still several thousand GAM members out in the bush.  While martial law has been lifted, the military operations will go on.