Clash between armed men and Aceh Police claims two lives

Clash between armed men and Aceh Police claims two lives

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): Two armed men were killed and two
policemen wounded in an exchange of gunfire in the mountainous
Geureutee area of West Aceh, some 60 kilometers southeast of
Banda Aceh.

The incident took place on Monday afternoon, just a day after
rebels from the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) ambushed a
convoy of trucks carrying members of the National Police's Mobile
Brigade. Three police officers were killed in Sunday's clash.

According to the spokesman for Aceh's joint task force Rencong
II, Maj. Said, Monday's clash occurred when armed people in two
Kijang vans intercepted a Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) car which
was being escorted by several officers from the Mobile Brigade.

"They sprayed bullets at the BRI car. Cross fire was
unavoidable. The BRI car had just returned from delivering money
to Tapak Tuan, South Aceh," Said stated on Tuesday.

He said two men in one of the vans was killed, while the other
attackers managed to flee.

According to Said, the names of the two men killed in the
incident could not be determined because they were not carrying
identification.

The two injured officers in the BRI car, identified as Sgt.
Supriadi and Sgt. Fitriadi, are being treated at Banda Aceh's
Zainoel Abidin General Hospital.

"A Kijang van used by the attackers was seized as evidence,
but no guns were found; only a magazine for an M-16," he said.

Eyewitnesses who requested anonymity, however, said four
civilians, including the two men police claimed were killed in
the attack on the BRI car, were shot dead during a police sweep
following Sunday's attack on the Mobile Brigade officers.

The eyewitnesses said they found four bodies, all identified
as West Aceh residents, in two separate locations on Tuesday.

Two of the victims were identified as Abdul Hadi, 32, from
Darat village in Lamno, and Zainuddin, 28, a local of Grueng
Sabe. According to witnesses, the pair were returning home from
Banda Aceh in a Kijang van when a group of police officers fired
on their vehicle.

Their bodies were reportedly dumped in a ravine, where they
were discovered by locals on Tuesday morning.

The other two civilian fatalities were identified as Mawardi,
28, a resident of Lambaroh, and Alaidin Syah, 30, from Darat
village. Both men were reportedly driving in a Taft Rocky Jeep in
the Geureutee area when they were killed.

Their jeep was reported to have been fired on before it
plunged into a ravine near the beach in Geureutee. Their bodies
were also found by local residents on Tuesday.

GAM spokesman Abu Tausie in Meureuhom Daya, West Aceh, accused
police of killing the four and denied the victims were members of
the separatist group.

He also claimed GAM attacked on Monday afternoon a truckload
of officers from the Mobile Brigade, a Kijang van and a Panther
van in an area two kilometers from Lamno, West Aceh. He said at
least 40 officers were killed and 15 others injured in the
attack.

"Fourteen GAM members initiated the attack," he said on
Tuesday. Official confirmation, however, was unavailable.

Responding to the escalating violence, Aceh Police deputy
chief Col. Sumantiyawan stated on Tuesday the police would beef
up security and that officers in the field had been ordered not
to be provoked into retaliation.

"No matter how hard things are, please restrain yourselves.
This violence proves who really initiated the conflict," he said.

Police and soldiers have increasingly become targets of attack
by armed separatists in the past several months.

With the latest incident, there have been at least four
attacks on security personnel in the area around Geureutee over
the past few months, Sumantiyawan said.

Geureutee is known as a restive area, with the mountainous
terrain affording rebels a place to hide from security personnel,
he said.

According to data from the police, at least 44 officers, 18 of
whom were from the Mobile Brigade, have been killed while on duty
in Aceh this year. At least 35 others have been injured and 11
have been declared missing.

Meanwhile in Yogyakarta, State Minister of Human Rights
Affairs Hasballah M. Saad said it was possible five cases of
alleged human rights abuses in Aceh would be tried before Idul
Fitri.

"We're still settling differences on whether to hold the trial
in Aceh or Jakarta and who the judges will be, as there are two
civilian and three military judges set for the court," Hasballah
told journalists on Tuesday.

The Attorney General's Office is due to make a final decision
on these issues later this week, he said. (44/50/edt)