Dead toll after Aceh latest clashes stands at 12

BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): The signing of a peace accord between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the government last week has failed to stop violence in Aceh; at least 12 people have been killed and two military personnel injured in separate incidents in the restive province this week.

Eight gunmen were found dead on Thursday morning following an armed clash with police in the North Aceh village of Hagu Barat Laut, some two kilometers west of the regency's main town of Lhokseumawe.

Local police spokesman Capt. Ahmad Mustafa Kamal said that an armed group ambushed a police patrol on Wednesday at around 11 p.m. It then threw grenades at the patrol from a house. The exchange of fire lasted until the early hours of Thursday.

Witnesses said the eight bodies were located in the house in the village where the grenades were believed to have been thrown from. Police claimed to have seized GLM rocket launchers, revolvers, four assembled bombs, a grenade, several bullets and two cellular phones.

Local residents identified the victims as villagers named Zulkifli, 26, Yusra, 21, M. Arief, 30, Machdi, 21, Zulfikar, 22, Musran, 33, Gunawan, 28. The other body remained unidentified.

Representatives of the government and GAM signed a joint understanding on a humanitarian pause in Davos, Switzerland, on Friday in a bid to stop the violence that has rocked the province since separatist rebels began an armed campaign in the mid 1970s.

In another incident on Wednesday, police shot dead Udin, 26, after he allegedly attempted to steal weapons from officers.

However, according to a villager who witnessed the shooting, Muhammad Ali, the civilian was shot after being beaten by police for riding a motorbike without a helmet.

Just three days after the peace agreement, military soldier Priv. Triyanto was stabbed to death pn Monday by a youth in a brawl at Kutabinje market in East Aceh. His attacker, a 20-year- old boy, Musliadi, was then shot dead by Triyanto's colleagues.

Police also found early on Thursday morning the body of Sawang village chief Sumiadi. He had been missing since Monday. (50/edt)