Abducted Army member found dead in ditch<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): An Army member who was abducted by a group of
\nunidentified gunmen on Friday was found dead the following day in
\nAceh, bringing the number of slain servicemen in the troubled
\nprovince since May to 30.<\/p>\n
North Aceh Military commander Lt. Col. Giyono told Antara the
\nmutilated body of Second Sgt. Muhammad Sufy, was found near a gas
\nstation in Geurugok subdistrict.<\/p>\n
Sufy was a member of the Makmur district military command.
\nLocals discovered the body, which was difficult to identify due
\nto wounds, in a ditch a few meters from the highway connecting
\nthe Aceh capital of Banda Aceh to Medan in North Sumatra.<\/p>\n
The 45-year-old was abducted on his way home from work just
\nafter dusk on Friday, his family said.<\/p>\n
Doctors at the local military hospital in the North Aceh
\ncapital of Lhokseumawe estimated that Sufy had been dead 10 hours
\nbefore his body was discovered.<\/p>\n
Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Wiranto told the House of
\nRepresentatives on Friday that 29 military soldiers and police
\nwere killed between May and July 1 while on duty in Aceh. The
\narmed separatist rebel group was blamed for the murders.<\/p>\n
Since May, violence has claimed more than 100 lives, including
\n41 people killed in a clash with troops in Krueng Geukueh
\nsubdistrict, near Lhokseumawe on May 3.<\/p>\n
North Aceh is one of three Aceh regencies most affected by
\nviolence, which remains unabated after 10 years of anti-rebel
\nmilitary operations were lifted in August last year.<\/p>\n
A group of armed civilians also set fire to a bus in Blang
\nTambue, some 60 kilometers west of Lhokseumawe, on its way to
\nBanda Aceh from Medan on Friday. Nobody was hurt in the incident.<\/p>\n
It was the fifth bus burned by armed groups in the past month.<\/p>\n
Bus driver Ruslan told Antara a group of men who carried
\nRussian-made AK-47s and American-made M-16 rifles stopped the bus
\nwith the number plate BL 7391 A and asked all passengers to get
\nout before setting it ablaze.<\/p>\n
Some residents said they watched the ambush from a distance,
\nbut could do nothing to stop it for safety reasons.<\/p>\n
\"We could only watch the fire gutting the bus, and we dared to
\napproach the passengers after the armed people left,\" a resident
\nwho requested anonymity said.<\/p>\n
In response to the ongoing violence affecting public
\ntransportation in Aceh, chairman of the provincial Land
\nTransportation Owners Organization (Organda), Kamaruddin THB,
\ndemanded security authorities to step up protection measures for
\nbuses plying Banda Aceh to Medan.<\/p>\n
\"In the absence of strict measures by the security
\nauthorities, public transportation companies will think twice
\nbefore they operate their fleet there,\" he said.<\/p>\n
In Medan, nongovernmental organizations which help hundreds of
\nrefugees fleeing Aceh have started a fund-raising program for the
\nAcehnese. An activist, Ikrimah Hamidy, said on Sunday over Rp 10
\nmillion had been collected at Friday's prayer in some mosques.<\/p>\n
Ikrimah said the money had been used to buy medicine, soaps,
\ntoothpaste and detergent for refugees, who are currently taking
\nshelter at mosques and school buildings.<\/p>\n
Aceh Governor Syamsuddin Mahmud has called on residents in the
\nvolatile regencies of North Aceh, Pidie and East Aceh to stay put
\nand asked refugees to return home despite the continuing
\nviolence.(39\/amd)<\/p>",
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