Baby shot, mom fights for life
Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
A baby was shot and killed and its mother left fighting for her life in violence which claimed at least 10 lives in the war- ravaged Indonesian province of Aceh on Sunday and Monday, sources said.
The dead also include a soldier, two alleged Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatists and a 79-year-old man and his son.
Maj. Zaenal Mutaqin, spokesman for the Iskandar Muda Military Command overseeing Aceh, said two rebels were killed in separate gun battles in North Aceh and East Aceh on Monday.
Razali, 30, an alleged member of GAM, was killed in the village of Cebrek, North Aceh. The soldiers who killed him seized a gun and ammunition from his house, he said.
Mutaqin said another GAM member, identified as Abdullah, was killed during a clash with a group of patrolling soldiers in Tualang Cut, East Aceh. Alamsyah, 30, was arrested for further investigation after he surrendered to the soldiers, he said.
GAM spokesman for East Aceh Ishak Daud denied the two were rebel soldiers, saying the local military had killed three civilians.
"The soldiers killed not only Abdullah and Razali but also 22- year-old Kasem Ali. The three are civilians who have no relationship with GAM," he said.
He said the trio were killed as reprisal for GAM attacks on two military posts in the regencies of Simpang Ulim and Alue Baloh on Monday.
GAM spokesman for North Aceh Tengku Jamaika admitted that a rebel, identified as M. Jafar, 25, and an unidentified soldier were killed in a gunfight in Geulanggang Baro, Tanah Pasir Subdistrict on Monday.
He said soldiers also shot dead a six-month-old baby being carried by his mother after rebels attacked a military post near the village.
"The baby died instantly while his mother is still in a critical condition for several serious injuries to her hands and chest," he said.
Mutaqin denied that soldiers shot the woman and killed her baby.
He also said that local people discovered five bodies with gunshot wounds in Pidie, East Aceh and Aceh Besar.
The bodies of Abdullah Gade, 35, and his father A. Amin, 79, and an unidentified man were discovered in Pidie Regency. Two other bodies found in East Aceh and Aceh Besar were yet to be identified, Yusra, an Indonesian Red Cross staff member, said on Tuesday.
"The five were killed on Sunday or Monday," he said.
GAM spokesman for Pidie Abu Razak accused the local military of having killed the civilians after abducting them.
"More and more civilians have been abducted and killed after the local military intensified its operation to quell the separatist movement that has the full support of the locals," he said.