Fire destroys three schools, bus in Aceh

Fire destroys three schools, bus in Aceh

Nani Farida, The Jakarta post, Lhokseumawe

With only a couple of days to go before the Aceh peace talks
start, three junior high schools and a bus were set on fire in
Lhokseumawe, a stronghold of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM),
raising condemnations from numerous sides in the region.

Three groups believed to be members of GAM torched the three
schools, located in the Banda Sakti, Muara Dua and Dewantara
subdistricts, almost at the same time on Wednesday.

A Pelangi passenger bus was also torched in the Dewantara
subdistrict and the blaze is believed to have been set by the
same group. Eyewitnesses said the bus, which was traveling at a
high speed from Medan, North Sumatra, to Banda Aceh, was stopped
and all passengers were asked to get off before it was doused
with kerosene and set on fire.

Maj. Zaenal Muttaqin, the spokesman for the security
restoration operation, accused GAM of being behind the arson
attacks. He based his accusation on the testimony of
eyewitnesses, adding that the burning of the three schools was
the work of the rebels in an attempt to foil the Indonesia-GAM
peace talks.

"The fires could only be put out after a large part of the
buildings had burned," he said, citing that the arson occurred at
about 8:00 p.m. local time on Wednesday.

Sofyan Daud, a spokesman for GAM in that region, was not
available for comment.

Mohammad Ilyas Wabah, the chief of the local education and
cultural office, condemned the incidents, saying that the fires
had contributed to creating a lost generation in the province
because more than 100 schools had been burned down over the last
two years.

"The burning of the schools causes hundreds of young students
to lose out on classes or to completely stop their education.
They stay at home or join the separatist movement," he said,
adding that thousands of school-aged children had dropped out of
school over the last two years.

Ali Basyah, an informal leader in North Aceh, condemned the
arson attacks, saying that it would maintain the province's
backwardness in the education field and sow hatred among the
people of both conflicting sides.

He called on local authorities to increase security not only
at strategic industries but also at public facilities, such as
schools, mosques, public transportation and terminals in the
regency.

"So far, schools, mosques, buses and terminals have been
targets for devastation during the escalating situation," he
said.

Previously, two cars belonging to Serambi Indonesia daily and
the PT AAF fertilizer company were set on fire last week in
Lhokseumawe.

Besides Aceh Besar, Sigli and East Aceh, North Aceh has been a
place for the most frequent gunfights between GAM and security
personnel. Thousands of Acehnese have been killed in gunfights
between 1989 and Oct. 2002.

Meanwhile, AFP reported that the violence pitting security
authorities against separatist rebels in the province had killed
more than 1,200 civilians and hundreds more were missing this
year, a rights activist said on Thursday.

"In the first ten months of this year, at least 1,228
civilians were killed in violence while 330 others are missing,"
said Rufriadi, the chairman of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute
(YLBHI) Aceh chapter.

He said the records, gathered by the institute's volunteers
across Aceh, also showed that 1,854 civilians were tortured and
973 others were arrested without clear reasons during the same
period.

Rights activists have said more than 10,000 people have died
since 1976 when separatist rebels from the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM) began fighting for an independent state.

Representatives of the government and GAM are scheduled to
hold another round of peace talks in Geneva on Nov. 2 to Nov. 4,
2002.