GAM claims to have special links with TNI
BANDA ACEH, Aceh (JP): A commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels in restive North Aceh regency Abu Sofyan Daud conceded that the movement has special links with officers in the Indonesian Military (TNI).
"We have special links with members of Kopassus (Army's Special Force) as they have been supplying us with weapons, information and other logistics.
"The officers (who helped us) are the ones who sympathized with our struggle and the suffering of the victims of violence in Aceh," Abu Sofyan told a local journalist on Thursday night.
He was commenting on a weapons raid conducted by the police on Thursday around 1 p.m. local time in a mosque in the restive Kandang area of Lhokseumawe.
"The munitions (found in the raid) are ours. We thought keeping it in the mosque was the safest place," Abu said.
Security forces found a total of 400 GLM bullets and a rocket- launcher along with 100 pairs of Malaysian-made boots and four sacks filled with combat fatigues on the roof of the mosque.
It is also reported that several documents allegedly belonging to a military unit were among the items confiscated in the raid.
"We believed that this belonged to GAM and we'll proceed with the case in accordance with the prevailing law," North Aceh Police chief Supt. Abadan Bangko said.
In Jakarta, TNI spokesman Rear Marshall Graito Usodo rejected GAM's claim, saying that GAM was merely going through the motions through an attempt to smear the military and shift the blame to Kopassus.
"They (GAM) were cornered as the authorities had found these weapons. It is impossible and illogical for Kopassus as an institution to go against other military/police units," Graito told The Jakarta Post by phone on Friday.
"So their (GAM) claim is not true. It's just a ruse.
"We would be digging our own grave if any Kopassus officers were involved in illegal activities here. Therefore, in Aceh the TNI never sends out any special force units without coordination with the Police as the civil power responsible for restoring law and order in the disputed area," Graito said.
An uneasy calm returned to Banda Aceh as residents resumed their activities one day after the celebration of Independence Day on Thursday.
Public transportation as well as business activities returned to normal, but a trail of violence still marked the province, leaving at least three people killed.
"In Aceh, Independence Day scared people. Now we have a bit of respite, but we will have to start watching out for GAM's anniversary on Dec. 4," a local reporter said.
In South Aceh, an alleged GAM member named Agus Salim was killed and another named Irsyadin injured when a bomb they planted exploded on a road in Kampung Tengoh, Trumon district, on Thursday afternoon, local police chief Supt. Supriyadi Djalal said on Friday.
A teenage boy named Ermiza Khaliansyah, 18, was shot dead during an armed skirmish in Sago village in Peusangan, Bireun regency, on Thursday around 5 p.m.
A military officer Second Lt. Adeli Faisal, 25, of the 113 Jayasakti Infantry Battalion, was also killed in an accident on Thursday when cleaning his gun in his dormitory.
"The gun fell, went off and he was hit in the chest," a staff member at Bireun hospital said.
Also on Thursday, a mother named Ainal Mardiyah and her four- year-old son Moh. Rizal Pahlevi were severely wounded after being gunned down by three unidentified men at a warehouse in Siron village, Padang Tiji district, Pidie regency.
Earlier in the day, an earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale rocked Banda Aceh, sending panicked residents running into the streets. There was no immediate report of casualties.
The first quake struck at around 1:45 a.m. and an aftershock at 2:15 a.m., Armen of the Meteorology and Geophysical Bureau (BMG) in Banda Aceh said.
Armen added that the quake's epicenter was in the Indian Ocean, some 144 kilometers north of Banda Aceh. (39/50/51/edt)