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.