Aceh rebels gun down 16 migrant settlers

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Police claimed on Monday that at least 16 people had been killed in guerrilla attacks on transmigration sites in Central Aceh since Sunday.

Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sad Harunantyo said the Javanese migrant settlers were killed when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels on Sunday and early Monday attacked Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages.

The first attack occurred in Kresek village late on Sunday, resulting in the death of seven people, while the second at Lindung Bulan took place in the small hours of Monday.

"The casualties, 16 killed and 12 wounded, were all shot by GAM separatists. They were all migrant settlers from Java," Harunantyo said.

Head of Takengon General Hospital Sutrima confirmed the deaths and said their bodies were being given autopsies.

Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages are located some 30 kilometers northeast of Takengon, the capital city of Central Aceh regency.

But a spokesman for the rebel group in Central Aceh, Wien Rimbe Raya, denied the claims, saying the 16 Javanese settlers were members of a militia group trained by the Indonesian Military (TNI).

"They (the settlers) were killed in a clash in Buntul Kemumu village when GAM tried to take back the village from TNI occupation," he said.

In turn, relatives of the 16 dead flatly denied that their deceased relatives were members of any militia.

"We are not militia. We do conduct exercises and arm ourselves, but this is just for self-protection," Subiman Taufik, a family member, said.

Subiman said the migrants, grouped in pujakesuma, had settled in the transmigration location for more than three decades.

"We have lived here for 30-years and mingled with the local Gayo people but still we have to protect ourselves from the armed rebel groups that often extort money from us," he told local reporters at the hospital in Takengon.

Violence has mounted since the government issued a new security arrangement to rid Aceh of separatist rebels, who have been fighting for independence since the mid-1970s.

The crackdown followed a year of inconclusive talks in Geneva and shaky ceasefires between Jakarta and GAM, which failed to stem bloodshed that has left hundreds dead this year alone. (50/emf)