Aceh Governor Abdullah Zaini:
I am prioritizing programs at the lower level
WHEN the tsunami struck in 2004, Abdullah Zaini, 74, was foreign minister of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), based in Sweden. The devastating tsunami prompted GAM to finally sit down with the Indonesian government in Helsinki, Finland to negotiate a peace treaty. GAM agreed to end the conflict in an agreement signed on August 15, 2005.
The GAM fighters put away their weapons and set up a political party, which won the 2009 general and local elections in Aceh. Abdullah's career changed when he won the Aceh governorship in 2012. From fighting in the jungles, his job was to govern a province recovering from the double disaster of a tsunami and the 25-year armed conflict.
December 23, 2014
WHEN the tsunami struck in 2004, Abdullah Zaini, 74, was foreign minister of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), based in Sweden. The devastating tsunami prompted GAM to finally sit down with the Indonesian government in Helsinki, Finland to negotiate a peace treaty. GAM agreed to end the conflict in an agreement signed on August 15, 2005.
The GAM fighters put away their weapons and set up a political party, which won the 2009 general and local electi
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