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.