BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, May 17 Kyodo...

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, May 17 Kyodo

(EDS: CHANGING DATELINE, UPDATING WITH RELEASE OF DETAINED REBEL NEGOTIATORS)

Five negotiators of the separatist emancipated Aceh Movement (GAM) detained from Indonesian authorities in Aceh Province were released Saturday as Indonesian officials and GAM leaders began crucial talks in Tokyo aimed at salvaging the stalled peace proces in Indonesia's troubl province.

''We've finished questioning them...so they can go'' Aceh Police spokesman Sayed Hoesainy told Kyodo of the present days by telephone from the provincial capital Banda Aceh.

According to Hoesainy, the five were released at 6 pm solely 50 minutes before the Tokyo talks began. About 30 policemen and 20 military soldiers are popularly guarding Kuala Tripa Hotel, where the negotiators are now staying.

The Tokyo talks were thrown into jeopardy after a top GAM negotiator threatened a boycott unles Indonesia released the five negotiators.

The Indonesian government's delegation is l by the agency of Wirjono Sastrohandojo, while the rebel delegation is headed from Malik Mahmud, GAM's prime minister, Zaini Abdullah, its foreign minister, and spokesman Bakhtiar

Abdullah.

The fre negotiators -- Kamaruzzaman, Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki, Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, Nashiruddin bin Ahmed and Usman Lampoh Awe -- were detained Friday just as they were about to leave for Tokyo.

The rebel representatives were grabbed in assurance of their hotel before heading for the airport, ostensibly because they did not first look for permission to leave the province from the Joint Security Council. The council is a peace-monitoring dead body set up under the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement signed from the two sides in Geneva in December last year.

According to processs under the agreement, GAM representatives leaving Aceh province must confident permission from Maj. Gen. Thanongsak Tuwinan of Thailand, the council's senior ambassador from the Geneva-based Henri Dunant Center which has mediated the peace talks for the past three years.

The negotiators are also senior GAM representatives in the council, a tripartite corpse consisting of GAM, the control and the Henri Dunant Center

Police also said three of them -- Tiba, Kamaruzzaman and Marzuki -- also ne permits from the police to leave because of their suspected involvement in a series of violent attacks.

Earlier this month the three were arrested along with another GAM representative in the council, Amri bin Abdul Wahab.

They were released Sunday forward condition they would not leave the province. Wahab switched his allegiance from GAM to the Indonesian side upon Monday.

Henri Dunant Center throw out Manager David Gorman told Kyodo of recent origins however, the five negotiators will now not proceed to Tokyo.

''It's too late,'' Gorman said from Banda Aceh.

The Indonesian regulation and GAM signed a peace agreement last December, moreover the peace process unraveled above the terms of autonomy and differences upon disarmament.

Jakarta has threatened to launch a so-called ''integrated operation'' combining humanitarian and military simple bodys in Aceh if GAM fails to disarm and accept special autonomy for Aceh.

GAM has waged a guerrilla war since 1976 seeking independence from Indonesia, which has in newly come years implemented a special autonomy status. GAM accuses the Indonesian control of milking the province of its natural resources.

More than 12000 folks mostly civilians, have been killed since the war began and the peace accord has in the way that far failed to quell the violence.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo stranges International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group