2 high school girls shot dead in Aceh
2 high school girls shot dead in Aceh
Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
Two schoolgirls from the same village as the head of the Free
Aceh Movement (GAM) were abducted and executed by armed gunmen in
Pidie regency, Eastern Aceh on Wednesday.
The shocking murder of two unarmed girls comes as new figures
show the situation in the resource-rich province is
deteriorating, with increasing numbers of civilians being
tortured, killed or both.
The murdered girls were identified as Novita, 17, and Nural
Aida, 18.
Local residents and military officers said two men wearing
civilian clothes stopped a public minivan in the village of
Gumpueng Tiro and forcibly removed the victims.
The girls, both wearing senior high school uniforms, were
taken to nearby forest where they were shot in the head. It is
not clear whether the girls were raped before they were killed.
Local residents, who found the bodies after the two gunmen
left on motorbikes, brought the girls to Sigli Public Hospital,
12 kilometers from the village.
Local residents said the two girls were from Mancang Tiro
village, where GAM supreme leader Hassan Tiro was born 78 years
ago.
Hassan Tiro, who renounced his Indonesian citizenship and is
now a Swedish citizen, has been leading the independence movement
since it launched its armed uprising in 1976.
Local military commander Lt. Col. Supartodi confirmed the
incident Wednesday afternoon.
Supartodi said the two gunmen were from GAM.
"They shot the two girls with a pistol," he said without
elaborating.
On Tuesday, security personnel killed three suspected GAM
rebels in Pidie.
Supartodi said six men had attempted to run off after they saw
12 military personnel patrolling near the Raya Sanggeu village in
Pidie regency, some 100 kilometers east of Banda Aceh.
Supartodi said troops recovered a pistol, a communications
radio and a fund-raising letter signed by a high-ranking GAM
leader.
Meanwhile, Banda Aceh Legal Aid (LBH) director Rufriadi said
Wednesday that from January to August this year alone, the
civilian victims of violence in Aceh had reached 3,503, including
974 killings.
Citing data collected by volunteers from LBH Banda Aceh,
Rufriadi said at least 1,486 of the victims were tortured, 223
had involuntarily disappeared and 820 were arbitrarily arrested.
He also said that extra-judicial killings rose to 129 cases in
August 2002, up from 90 cases in July 2000, while torture victims
stood at 164 in August, up from 158 in July.
"The rising number of victims shows that the situation in Aceh
is deteriorating, leaving no more place for civilians to move
around freely," Rufriadi was quoted by Antara as saying.
Civilians, including women, have always been on the conflict's
front line. On Aug. 23 unidentified gunmen murdered a middle-aged
headmistress in full view of her horrified pupils.
Government and military officials have blamed GAM for much of
the violence in the province, including school burnings and
kidnappings.
The administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri has
given GAM leaders till the end of the year to make up their minds
as to whether or not they want to continue peace talks.
The administration says that for the talks to resume GAM must
accept special autonomy and abandon its quest for independence.
If GAM fails to do so, the Indonesian Military (TNI) is likely to
step up its campaign of violence in the war-torn province.
Separatist unrest in Aceh on the tip of Sumatra island has
been fueled by years of human rights abuses by the military and
by the central government's draining of the region's rich oil and
gas resources.