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.