Eleven killed in fresh Aceh violence

Eleven killed in fresh Aceh violence

Ibnu Mat Noor
The Jakarta Post
Banda Aceh, Aceh

Eleven people, including two soldiers and a 13-year-old boy,
have been killed in outbreaks of violence in restive Aceh
province, officials and humanitarian activists say.

On Sunday, two soldiers and a 13-year-old boy named Satrya,
the son of the military subdistrict chief in Central Aceh, were
killed in an ambush by rebels in Burni Lintang village in Isaq
district, some 26 kilometers south of Takengon town, Central
Aceh, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Firdaus said.

The two soldiers were identified as Second Corp. Heru Priyanto
and Pvt. Heri Wijayanto, both from West Java-based Siliwangi
Military Command.

The soldiers and the boy were traveling in a car from Isaq to
Takengon when rebels reportedly attacked them in a quiet valley.

GAM spokesman in Central Aceh, Wien Rimba Raya, said that the
casualties were a result of a gunfight between rebels and the
military.

Officer Firdaus further said that also on Sunday at least two
rebels, identified as Zulkarnaen and Zainal Abidin, were shot
dead in a gunbattle with the military in Ulee Gle village of
Tanah Jambo Aye district in North Aceh, some 60 kilometers east
of the industrial town of Lhokseumawe.

In the latest report on Monday, the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI)
removed four male bodies bearing gunshot wounds in Atong village
of Montasik district in Aceh Besar, some 30 kilometers east of
Banda Aceh, local PMI official Ahmad Salim said.

Meanwhile, PMI also removed on Monday two male bodies with
gunshot wounds in Bireun regency, some 200 kilometers from Banda
Aceh capital, said Red Cross worker Marzuka Hasan.

GAM has been fighting for an Islamic independent state since
the mid-1970. After a series of shaky negotiations between
Jakarta and the rebels, the central government slapped a
separatist tag on the movement in March this year.

At least 1,200 people have been killed in Aceh this year,
mostly civilians.

The government has given the province autonomy and has
rejected the possibility of independence in effort to pull the
country together.