A teacher, latest civilian casualty of war in Aceh

The Jakarta Post, Lhoksuemawe, Aceh

Residents in the remote Aceh village of Seumirah in North Aceh regency found on Tuesday the body of a young teacher who was abducted by an unknown group of armed men, in yet another case of civilians getting caught in the middle of the conflict between the military and the Acehnese separatists.

The victim, 20 year old Muzakir, was found dead, bound and gagged against a tree with only underwear on.

The perpetrators stuffed his mouth with grass and slit his throat from ear to ear.

"I asked them (the kidnappers) again and again what his crime was" said his older sister Farida who tried to prevent the kidnapping. "But they didn't answer, they told me to shut up, slapped my face and kicked me in the mouth."

She said Muzakir was taken away at around 8:15 p.m. on Monday from his family's house, a few hundred meters away from where his body was found.

Four of the kidnappers, she said, entered the house to take him, more were waiting outside. They were all dressed in military fatigues and wore masks.

Both sides in the conflict wear similar military fatigues, and both have been accused by the other of abducting civilians.

Farida said she heard the kidnappers speaking Javanese, the dialect of most of Java Island where many TNI soldiers hail from. The kidnapping also occurred in an area once frequented by GAM rebels but which had fallen under TNI control shortly after the month-long military operation began.

The village is located about 10 kilometers off the main highway that connects the provincial capital Banda Aceh with the North Sumatra capital of Medan. Its surrounding area of scrub brush, thin forests and palm oil and rubber plantations were apparently a GAM training ground.

A number of locals said that they had not seen any rebels pass through their village for about a month. Soldiers, meanwhile, have built outposts near the village and conduct regular patrols.

The villagers apparently did not report Muzakir's death to the authorities. They left his body the way they found him for about seven hours due to fear that his murderers might return. Only when a group of journalists arrived in the afternoon did they untie him from the tree.

The 3rd strikeforce detachment commander Lt. Col. Rimbo said he had not heard of the killing, which occurred some four kilometers from the military post he is based at.

He assumed however, that Muzakir's death may be related to the finding of a homemade bomb on Monday at the Suemirah village. He said locals had told soldiers of the bomb, which he said was planted near a bridge by GAM to hamper troop movements. "The message (of the killing) is 'don't tell TNI again'," he explained.

As with others in the village, Farida would not publicly speculate about who killed her brother nor why someone wanted him dead. Muzakir was a teacher at a nearby Muslim boarding school, or pesantren, and had nothing to do with the current war, she said.

But Muzakir's case is one of many involving abducted, tortured and murdered civilians that have emerged since the military operation against GAM rebels began on May 19.

His death also followed a recent report by the Indonesian Red Cross estimating that over 200 people had died but have not said whether they were soldiers, rebel fighters or civilians.

The conflict with GAM, however, has been on again, off again since 1976 when GAM was founded to fight for independence in the natural resource rich province.

Human rights groups have accused both sides of targeting civilians.