Death toll rises to 17 in Aceh military raids

JAKARTA (JP): Fatalities from military raids on alleged separatist targets in Aceh rose to 17 as eight more people died on Monday and early Tuesday, human rights activists and hospital staff said on Tuesday.

Yakob Hamzah of the Iskandar Muda Legal Aid Institute told The Jakarta Post from Lhokseumawe that seven more people died from bullet wounds during a clash between the military and alleged supporters of a separatist movement in a number of villages in North Aceh on Sunday.

Yakob said that one died in Samudra subdistrict, one in Pusong, one in Merah Mulia, two in Simpang Kramat and two more in Matang Kuli.

"They had been in a critical condition since the Sunday incident," Yakob said, adding that none of the seven had been taken to a hospital.

Yakob was unable to disclose the identity of the victims.

Siti Aminah, 65, a resident of Pusong village, also died early on Tuesday at Lhokseumawe General Hospital, Hamdani, a security officer at the hospital told the Post.

"She died at 4 a.m. this morning," Hamdani said.

The officer was unable to state the cause of Siti's death.

Hospital staff said that at least 22 people were injured during the raids on Sunday.

The military raided Meusanah Blang Kandang, Simpang Kramat and Pusong villages on Sunday and detained about 158 followers of Ahmad Kandang, a leader of the outlawed Free Aceh separatist movement.

A spokesman for the Bukit Barisan Military Command, Lt. Col. Nurdin Sulistyo, said on Tuesday that 12 more alleged followers of Ahmad had been arrested in a raid conducted in Lhokseumawe on Monday.

Last Tuesday, a mob killed seven of 18 soldiers which they dragged from a bus passing though Simpang Ulim district in East Aceh. The remaining 11 escaped after producing civilian identity cards.

Lilawangsa Military Commander Col. Johnny Wahab said that about 700 troops were deployed last week to search for the bodies of the seven dead soldiers and to attempt to locate the whereabouts of two marines taken hostage last week.

The marines, one of them an officer, were kidnapped on Wednesday in the North Aceh district of Muara Dua.

Patrols have so far recovered the bodies of six of the soldiers, he added.

In Jakarta, 21 Acehnese community leaders held a meeting with Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto at the military's headquarters on Jl. Merdeka Barat on Tuesday.

Among the leaders were former minister Bustanil Arifin, politician Ismail Hasan Metareum, former Aceh governor Ibrahim Hasan and scholar Ismail Suny. Wiranto was accompanied by ABRI's Chief of General Affairs Lt. Gen. Fachrul Razi and Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Ismail said Wiranto had accepted a suggestion that the problems in the troubled province be solved through a cultural, sociological and religious approach.

Antara reported that Wiranto told the meeting that the Wibawa Operation, as the security forces' current activities in the province have been named, was not a military operation, but was a series of raids organized by the police to ensure peace, order and public security.

Wiranto conceded that some military personnel were involved in the operation, but insisted that control lay in the hands of the Aceh Police.

"General Wiranto expressed his concern over the situation and said that he did not want to see any more victims," one of the guests was quoted by Antara as saying.

Also in Jakarta, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) demanded an end to the recent military operations in Aceh, saying that they would only lead to more violence in the province. The commission also called for the Lilawangsa command to be disbanded.

Munir, the commission's coordinator, said that recent violence in Aceh had been "engineered" in order to justify retaining a strong military presence in the province.

Riot police should have been used instead of armed soldiers, he said. Munir said that any sign of resistance and opposition to military brutality was branded as separatism, while in fact it was a natural response to a period of prolonged repression in the area.

The government has yet to address the issue of rehabilitating victims of a military campaign to crush separatists rebels which began in 1989 and lasted until the middle of last year, he added.

Muharam of the Action Committee for Reform in Aceh, who was also present at Tuesday's meeting, questioned why alleged separatist leaders were never captured during the raids, which nevertheless resulted in heavy civilian casualties. (byg/21/anr)