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.