Two more soldiers killed in Aceh<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A group of at least 10 unidentified armed men
\nbombarded a truck of security troops with a volley of gunfire
\nkilling two soldiers and wounding six others in West Aceh on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
District Military Commander Col. Sarifudin Tippe said on
\nFriday that the troops from the 112th Dharma Jaya Infantry
\nBattalion were attacked on the way home to Banda Aceh from
\nsecuring the polling process, which was canceled earlier, at
\nLamno, a subdistrict in West Aceh.<\/p>\n
The troops were in a military truck with a commander riding
\nseparately in a car in front when the unknown assailants attacked
\nat about 5:30 p.m. on the steep and winding road at the foot of
\nGeuruetee hill, Tippe said at Kesdam military hospital in the
\nprovincial capital of Banda Aceh.<\/p>\n
According to Tippe, the commander of the infantry battalion
\nwas unharmed as were the attackers, Antara reported.<\/p>\n
"The car driven by the battalion's commander was not even
\nscratched by a single bullet, he said.<\/p>\n
The two fatalities in the 45-minute fight were identified as
\nprivates Tomy and Irawadi.<\/p>\n
"Tomy was shot in the head, while Irawadi bled to death after
\nsustaining a serious wound to the foot," Tippe said.<\/p>\n
The six injured were Sgt. First Class Sutrisno, Sgt. Second
\nClass Sofyanuddin, Privates Darmadi, Rusdi and Wislan, and Hery
\nWahyudin. They're all between 26 and 31 years old.<\/p>\n
All are still being treated at the military hospital with gun
\nwounds to different parts of the bodies.<\/p>\n
The troops were heavily stormed by gunfire from the group
\nabout five minutes after they left Lamno.<\/p>\n
Tippe said the soldiers were attacked by the unknown
\nassailants from the upper part of the hill.<\/p>\n
Tippe vowed to search for the brutal attackers shortly after
\nthey complete the task to secure the ongoing election's voting
\nand counting process.<\/p>\n
He further urged all Acehnese, particularly those residing
\nacross the province, to stop suspicions of security forces
\npresent in Aceh as they were deployed to secure the province.<\/p>\n
"As long as the Aceh people remain suspicious of the troops,
\nit means that they're still giving room for the separatist
\nmovement," Tippe said.<\/p>\n
The troubled province of Aceh has been ignited by a serious of
\n"mysterious attacks" against police and military personnel,
\nsecurity forces offices and other public facilities in the past
\nfew months.<\/p>\n
The provincial Ministry of Education and Culture disclosed on
\nFriday that as many as 72 schools in the area were reportedly set
\nablaze by unidentified groups in the past one month.<\/p>\n
The damaged buildings consisted of 41 elementary schools, 26
\njunior high schools and five senior high schools.<\/p>\n
Thirty-one of the schools set alight are located in Pidie
\nregency, 26 in North Aceh, six in West Aceh, five in South Aceh,
\nthree in East Aceh and another in Central Aceh.<\/p>\n
The arson attacks on the schools in the province will leave
\ntens of thousands of students, who are currently on holidays
\nuntil next week, unable to continue studies temporarily.<\/p>\n
Thousands of teachers will also be jobless .<\/p>\n
But chairman of the regional chapter of the Indonesian
\nTeachers Association (PGRI), Amudy, insisted that none of the
\n40,000 members have left the province so far following the arson
\nattacks.<\/p>\n
"We've never received any reports about teachers who have fled
\nor been expelled from those areas," Amudy said.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post correspondent reported from the North Aceh
\ncapital of Lhokseumawe that 31 schools have already been burned
\nby the unidentified armed group, causing 30,000 students to
\ntemporarily stop attending and 1,000 teachers jobless.<\/p>\n
"We have not yet found any buildings that could be temporarily
\nused as schools for the students," Ishak Alibasyah, head of the
\nNorth Aceh education office, said on Friday.<\/p>\n
No parties, including the Free Aceh separatist movement (GAM),
\nhave declared themselves responsible for the arson attacks on the
\nschools.<\/p>\n
The military continues to blame GAM members for committing the
\nvandalism.<\/p>\n
But GAM chief of administration affairs, Tengku Zainuddin,
\nalias Tengku Beutong, denied the role of his personnel in any of
\nthe school attacks in the province.<\/p>\n
"It's impossible for GAM soldiers to burn schools which is
\nagainst Islamic teaching," he told the Post on Friday.<\/p>\n
Beutong said the arson attacks were the work of the Indonesian
\nmilitary, which attempts to tarnish GAM's image.<\/p>\n
He said that GAM intelligence officers have learned that the
\nrecent disorders in the province were masterminded by
\nprovocateurs as well as 48 personnel from Kopassus, the
\nIndonesian elite force.<\/p>\n
These Kopassus members grouped in the Elang (Eagle) team have
\nasked the Acehnese to pretend as GAM members and create disorders
\nin the province so that Jakarta would dispatch more troops to
\nAceh, Beutong said.<\/p>\n
He therefore asked the Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander
\nGen. Wiranto to pull out the 48 Kopassus personnel from the area
\nin order to let the Acehnese enjoy the peaceful surroundings.<\/p>\n
From Jakarta, TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif asserted
\nthat Beutong's remarks were untrue.<\/p>\n
"TNI have withdrawn all Kopassus members from Aceh. There's no
\nKopassus personnel in Aceh," Syamsul told reporters.<\/p>\n
He said it's the GAM members who often pretended as Kopassus
\nmembers to create commotions in the province.<\/p>\n
The local military, Syamsul said, arrested GAM member Irwan
\nbin Baharudin Noor, 26, recently. Acting as a Kopassus member,
\nIrwan was nabbed while spying on the location, target missions
\nand a number of the Police Mobile Brigade units in Lhokseumawe,
\nhe said. (bsr\/46)<\/p>",
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