Aceh rebels gun down 16 migrant settlers

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)