Another vocal Acehnese councillor murdered
Ibnu Matnoor and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam
The security uncertainties in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province have claimed another victim with the shooting dead of United Development Party (PPP) provincial councillor, Nasri Zamzam, 43, on Thursday evening, a report said on Friday.
A resident of the area, who asked to remain anonymous, said Nasri was shot by two unidentified men in front of his house in Alue Glong village, Sukamakmur subdistrict, in Aceh Besar regency, some 15 kilometers away from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.
The witness, however, said it was obvious that Nasri knew his murderers as they had been involved in a brief talk before the two men shot him at about 6:15 p.m. on Thursday.
Soon after the killing, Tengku Maksalmina, spokesman for the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the Aceh Besar region denied any responsibility, saying that "a series of killings had recently been carried out by the Indonesian security forces in an attempt to stop GAM's struggle for an independent nation."
Local police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Dade Ahmad, however, defended the allegation that the killing was committed by GAM as many local councillors had refused to support the separatist movement.
"GAM has all the motives for the killing," Dade said.
Nasri was the eleventh Acehnese public figure to be killed in the province over the past two years.
Earlier on Monday evening, Aceh provincial legislative councillor from the Crescent and Star Party (PBB), Taslim A. Jalil, was killed at his residence in Meunasah village, Lhoknga regency, also in Aceh Besar regency.
Meanwhile, the situation in Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, escalated on Friday following the burning of four schools by groups of unidentified armed men at around 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Witnesses said there were explosions prior to the burning of the schools.
The four schools were State Vocational High School 4 (SMKN 4), State Vocational High School 2 (SMKN 2), and State High School 3 (SMU 3), all located in Ulee Jalan area, some two kilometers away from the town center, and Junior High School 7 Cunda, which is located some 50 meters from the Medan-Banda Aceh-Lhokseumawe highway.
Ilias, a security guard at SMKN 4, said he and members of his family were cleaning the teachers' room while watching the World Cup on TV at 8 p.m. when three armed and masked men ordered them to get out.
"We were in the process of leaving the room when we suddenly heard the sound of breaking glass and saw flames coming from the school's laboratory," Ilias said.
"And the firefighters, who arrived about an hour later, failed to put out the fire as several rooms had already been gutted," he added.
Similar conditions were found at SMU 3 and SMKN 2, which are located not far from SMKN 4.
Johan, a security guard at SMU 3, said the first room destroyed by the fire was the computer room, followed by other rooms.
But he was unable to give any information about the identity of the arsonist as he had fled the scene.
The burning of their schools shocked students on Friday morning.
Many female students from SMU 3 cried to see much of their school reduced to a burned-out shell. Some even fainted.
Nurul Hidayah, 15, a first-grader in the high school, could not hide her grief after seeing what had happened.
"Ya Allah (Oh my God), why was our school burned?" she asked in tears.
But, the students went ahead with their examinations despite several of the classrooms being unusable.
While the arson attacks were the first to have hit SMKN 4, SMU 3 and SMKN 2, the one on SLTP 7 Cunda on Thursday evening was actually the second.
Previously, the school was burned by unidentified men when a visiting delegation of state officials, led by Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla, visited North Aceh on Aug. 16, 2001.
"An explosive device was put in front of the school compound two days ago (Wednesday)," said Mustafa Sulaiman, 45, the school's headmaster.
Mustafa accused the separatist movement of being behind the school's burning, saying that the arson attack was part of an attempt to disrupt teaching and learning activities in the area.
Observers estimated that the burning of the four schools had caused estimated losses of more than Rp 14 billion (US$1.5 million) to the government.
Besides gutting classrooms, the blazes also destroyed all the students' report books and many important documents.