Almost 200 officials killed in Aceh

Almost 200 officials killed in Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: At least 197 subdistrict officials have been
killed in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province since 1998, when a
separatist insurgency began to intensify in the province.

An official with the civil emergency administration in Aceh,
Sofyanis, claimed on Saturday that these government officials had
been killed by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Besides the 197 officials killed, 104 had been permanently
incapacitated and 15 others had gone missing, said Sofyanis, the
deputy director of the civil emergency administration in the
province.

GAM has been waging a guerrilla war since 1970 in Aceh, but
the group intensified its struggle in 1998 following the demise
of Soeharto's iron-fisted regime. The Indonesian government
declared martial law in the province last year in an effort to
wipe out the rebels, but the province's status was lowered to a
state of civil emergency in May of this year after GAM's
operations had been significantly curtailed by the Indonesian
military operations in the province. -- Antara