Aceh rebel commander shot dead in shootout

Aceh rebel commander shot dead in shootout

Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

Aceh Police claimed on Thursday to have shot dead a
territorial commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) at the
remote Teupi Asan village in Aceh Jaya regency, some 145
kilometers southeast of here.

A police spokesman, Comr. Taufiq Sutiyono, said Abu Arafah,
alias Ibrahim, 33, who was the GAM commander for Meureuhom Daya,
one of several "GAM provinces", was killed during an armed clash
that followed a raid on the house of one of his wives in the
Setiabakti subdistrict of West Aceh district.

Taufiq said the death of Arafah was confirmed by his wife,
Apriani, 23, who is being detained at the West Aceh Police
headquarters for questioning.

"We are certain that it was Abu Harafah who we killed,
following his wife's confirmation," Taufiq said.

He said Arafah was the fourth GAM leader in West Aceh to have
been killed by security authorities over the past two months,
after Alexander, Raja Umar and Abu Khaidir.

Acting on information from local residents, about 200
paramilitary officers backed up by 14 police troops walked for
about 90 minutes from the nearest road to reach Teupin Asan late
Wednesday evening, according to Taufiq.

After encircling the house early on Thursday morning, police
called on Arafah to surrender but he tried to run through the
back of the house and was shot in the thigh.

Taufiq said Arafah died of "heavy bleeding" en route to the
district town of Meulaboh.

Police seized from Arafah an FN pistol and ammunition, plus a
satellite phone.

GAM field commander Abdul Amri bin Abdul Wahab confirmed
Arafah's death but doubted the police account.

"How can a wound to the thigh cause so much blood loss?... It
means he must have undergone severe and fatal torture so that he
died," Amri said.

The death of a territorial commander was not a great blow for
GAM as a whole and would not lower the rebels' fighting spirit,
he said.

"Even today, we already have candidates to replace him," Amri
said without elaborating.

GAM has been fighting since 1976 for an independent homeland
in Aceh.

Armed clashes between rebels and security troops have been
continuing despite the fact that both the government and GAM are
gearing up for the next round of peace talks in Geneva.

Meanwhile, the Aceh provincial prosecutors' office has ruled
out pursuing espionage charges against a Scottish woman detained
for the past month.

"According to the chief, if we focus on spying it will be
difficult to prove in court later," prosecutor Zainal Said told
AFP.

Last Saturday Zainal said there were indications of espionage
in the activities of Lesley McCulloch, who has been detained
along with her American traveling companion, volunteer nurse Joy
Ernestine-Sadler, since Sept. 11.

On Oct. 3 Zainal assigned a team of three prosecutors to
examine the case file which police had prepared against the
women. After their review and consultation with Aceh's top
prosecutor they decided to only focus their case on the women's
alleged visa misuse, Zainal said.

The prosecution team decided the case file was not complete
and within two days will send it back to police for further
investigation, Zainal said.

Ernestine-Sadler's case had always been based on alleged visa
misuse, Zainal said, but the case file against McCulloch was
filled with alleged notes she made showing "state secrets",
specifically the strength and movement of Indonesian security
forces.

It also contained copies of newspaper articles by McCulloch,
photographs of victims of violence, and photographs of McCulloch
with guerrilla leaders of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

The evidence came from McCulloch's own laptop computer, Zainal
said on Saturday.

McCulloch was until recently a university lecturer in
Tasmania, Australia, and is a frequent contributor on the Aceh
dispute to Asian newspapers.