BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: Hasan di Tiro, founder of the former rebel group GAM in Indonesia’s Aceh, returned on Saturday after more than 30 years exile, welcomed by thousands of people in the province on the tip of Sumatra.

His return came a day after Finland’s former president, Martti Ahtisaari won, the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in global peacemaking including in 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 westernmost province of Indonesia.

About 15,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict before a truce was reached with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in August 2005, facilitated by Ahtisaari.

Muchtar, who was among a crowd waiting to see Tiro at the black-domed grand mosque in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, said he had travelled from Central Aceh to see the former rebel.

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