Jakarta- Greeted by thousands of cheering supporters, the 83-year-old founder of Aceh's rebel movement returned to the tsunami-wracked Indonesian province of Aceh Saturday for the first time in almost 30 years.
Hassan di Tiro fled to Sweden in late 1970s after declaring Aceh independent in 1976, a move triggered that a long-running conflict in the north-western Indonesian province.
About 15,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict before a truce was reached between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August 2005, after the devastation and the deaths of about 170,000 people in the province caused by the December 24, 2004 tsunami.