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Armed abductors release kidnapped Chinese miners in Indonesia

AP - Wednesday, April 30

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Assailants who kidnapped five Chinese miners in Indonesia's remote Aceh Province released the men unharmed after police and soldiers surrounded them, police said Wednesday.

Regional police spokesman Col. Jodi Heriyadi said the men were set free Tuesday night after about 100 police officers and soldiers surrounded the group. However, the kidnappers escaped, he said.

The miners had been siezed Saturday in the mountainous jungle of Gayo Lues district, about 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) northwest of the capital, Jakarta. Three other captives had already been set free.

The abductors had demanded more than US$100,000 (€64,000) in ransom, but none of that amount was paid, the police spokesman said.

In 2005, the government reached a deal with secessionists in Aceh province, ending a war that had killed 15,000 people. The local government is now run by a former rebel who was elected in 2006.

A spokesman for the former rebels said the kidnapping had nothing to do with them, but was probably the work of a criminal gang.

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