Banda Aceh quiet after mass gathering
BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Capital Banda Aceh was quiet on Sunday following the peaceful Mass Gathering for Peace (SIRA RAKAN) which ended the previous day.
Stores in several traditional markets here resumed business on Sunday after two days of closure due to the mass gathering.
However, prices of basic commodities remained high as supplies were scarce because there had been no single public transportation vehicle in operation over the past two days.
As of Sunday, public buses and minivans serving routes to and from Banda Aceh had yet to become fully operational, forcing residents to continue using sea or air transportation to reach certain places.
Residents in Pidie regency said the police continued with their sweeping operations to check documents on passing vehicles, including ambulances. They also said that barbed wire barricades were still seen on the streets in front of police and military offices.
The police had intensified their operation since Wednesday to block access to the city, aimed at preventing residents across the province from attending the mass gathering.
Hospitals, activists and police gave different figures on the number of fatalities during the two-day mass gathering. The police said 14 people had been killed in separate incidents, while the gathering's organizer, the Information Center for Aceh Referendum (SIRA), claimed that 32 people had died.
The Jakarta Post correspondent citing hospital records said that the death toll reached 27 following the discovery of six bodies on Saturday, bearing severe wounds in Idi Rayeuk district, East Aceh regency.
East Aceh District Military Commander Lt. Col. Deni K. Irawan said on Sunday that two of the six bodies were military officers clad in civilian clothes, who had been missing since Thursday, while on their way from Langsa in East Aceh to Lhokseumawe in North Aceh.
Meanwhile on Saturday evening, six passengers were injured when the police fired shots at two cars during an operation on Jl. Teuku Nyak Makam in Banda Aceh.
"There were dozens of officers, all armed with long rifles. I was ordered to stop the car but then another officer fired shots at our car. My wife was shot in the stomach, waist and thigh," Iswar Yusuf told reporters at the Zainoel Abidin General Hospital in Banda Aceh.
The officers' violent actions have compelled at least 15 non- governmental organizations and students organizations to issue a joint statement to sue Aceh Police chief Brig. Gen. Chaerul Rasyidi and all personnel of the Police Special Operation Cinta Meunasah as suspects over human rights violations.
"We demand that an independent commission be set up to audit humanitarian violations by the Indonesian security personnel against Acehnese who wanted to participate in the mass gathering for peace in Banda Aceh," executive director of the Coalition of Non-Governmental Organizations on Human Rights Maimul Fidar said on Sunday.
The coalition also urged the Geneva-based Joint Forum Humanitarian Pause for Aceh to suspend political dialog between representatives of the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), slated for mid November, until the results of the investigation by the independent commission are made public.
Meanwhile, Head of GAM representatives at the Joint Committee on Security Modality (KBMK), Amni bin Ahmad Marzuki, said no GAM representatives would attend the political dialog in Geneva, slated for Nov. 16 and Nov. 17 on the grounds that the Indonesian security forces continued killing the Acehnese.
Amni also urged that the Indonesian government should withdraw military/police reinforcement troops from the province as they were behind the prolonged violence.
Recently, a GAM representative of the Monitoring Team on Humanitarian Action Ganni Nurdin told The Jakarta Post that the Indonesian government representatives had left KBMK office at Hotel Kuala Tripa in Banda Aceh two weeks ago.
He said he deplored the departure of the representatives as there were now only representatives of GAM and the Henry Dunnant Center who are monitoring the situation in the province. (50/lup)