GAM claims to have special links with TNI

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)