Former GAM negotiator shot dead by military

Former GAM negotiator shot dead by military

Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

An Acehnese separatist negotiator Zulfani bin Abdul Rani, 32,
was shot dead by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in a raid on the
Krueng Seumideun village in Peukan Baro district in Pidie, some
1230 kilometers east of Banda Aceh, on Sunday.

Both the Aceh Separatist Movement (GAM) and TNI confirmed the
incident on Monday.

Meanwhile, at least eight bodies with gunshot wounds were
found in separate places on Sunday. One of the bodies was of a
policeman.

Senior commander of AGAM, the military wing of GAM, Amri Abdul
Wahab, said to The Jakarta Post that Zulfani was shot after being
arrested by the military. "Indonesia does not have any law. If
Zulfani was found guilty, he deserved a legal proceeding. Why
should he be shot dead?"

Zulfani was a member of the team which met with the government
representatives last year to find a peaceful solution in Aceh.
The talks resulted in a short-lived cease-fire between GAM and
the government, but it collapsed after seven months.

Lt. Col. Supartodi, chief of Pidie Military District Command,
confirmed on Monday that during the Monday raid the military had
to kill a member of GAM for what they claim was resisting arrest.

"The victim was a man in charge of fund-raising for GAM," he
said. But he said he did not know, when told that the victim was
actually Zulfani bin Abdul Rani, a top GAM negotiator.

"We also heard later that he was Zulfani, but based on his ID
card he was Fahmi Rizal."

He added that a 9 millimeter FN gun was taken from the
victim's body.

On Saturday, a major bomb blast disrupted the visit of
Coordinating Minister for Peoples' Welfare Yusuf Kalla and
Minister of Religious Affairs Said Agiel Munawar to Lhokseumawe,
North Aceh.

The bomb exploded in an abandoned theater at 10:05 a.m. local
time, only minutes before the two ministers arrived at an
adjacent sports stadium where a ceremony to officiate the
development of an Islamic center was to take place.

No casualties were reported in the incident. The ceremony went
ahead as scheduled despite the blast.

Brig. Zamroni, commander of the military operation to restore
security to Aceh, accused the Free Aceh Separatist Movement (GAM)
of masterminding the incident in an attempt to upset the
ministers' visit to the city.

Locals said they were unaffected by the incident and carried
on with their daily activities amid the tight security in the
city.

Lhokseumawe, some 270 kilometers southeast of the provincial
capital of Banda Aceh, is one of GAM's critical strongholds in
the strife-torn province. The city is an industrial zone where
foreign mining company PT ExxonMobil Indonesia and two fertilizer
companies, PT ASEAN Aceh Fertilizer and PT Pupuk Iskandar Muda,
operate.

North Aceh Regent Tarmizi A. Karim said the local government
had allocated Rp 19 billion in the first phase of the development
project.

Said and Iraqi Ambassador Sa'daan Al-Juhaidy, who joined the
ministers' entourage, spent the night in the city to allow them a
chance to witness the development project in the regency.

Separately, in Pidie, 120 kilometers southeast of the city,
two rebels were killed in an exchange of gunfire with security
personnel in Kambuek Village, Mutiara Subdistrict in the regency
on Friday.

In West Aceh, a body with several gunshot wounds was found in
Suak Raya Village, near the regency capital of Meulaboh, on
Saturday.

Meanwhile, the provincial legislature called on the central
government to review Presidential Instruction No. 4/2001, which
it said has claimed at least 1,000 lives over the last ten
months.

"The presidential decree must be reviewed as it has been found
to be ineffective in restoring security and order to solve the
conflict," he said.

He added that the central government should exercise good
judgment when it makes a decision on whether to extend the
military operation or seek an alternative way to find a
comprehensive solution to the prolonged bloody conflict.