A teacher, latest civilian casualty of war in Aceh

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.