GAM spokesman killed in police raid

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Aceh Police claim that they have shot dead a high-ranking member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Saturday in a raid on a house located some 10 kilometers from the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Ayah Sofyan alias Zakaria Yahya, a GAM spokesman for Aceh Besar district was killed in the operation in Kuta Baro village, Aceh Police chief Insp. Gen. Yusuf Mangga Barani said as quoted by Antara.

He said Sofyan also served as a deputy for operations to the GAM military chief and commander of a GAM division based in Aceh Besar district.

The rebel group has yet to confirm Sofyan's death, but his nephew, Azhari, said he believed that the body, lying at a police clinic in Lampteuman in Banda Aceh, was his uncle.

Mangga Barani said the police also confiscated some important documents from the raided house, including a GAM organizational structure chart.

However, he said the police were unable to arrest a number of other rebels who were in the same building along with Sofyan during the raid as they managed to escape.

The Aceh Police chief said his personnel had observed Sofyan and his close assistants for some time before launching the operation.

Sofyan's body is expected to be buried in his home village of Lamreueng, Aceh Besar.

In the meantime, a mob of unidentified miscreants set fire to a minitruck carrying newspapers on its way from the Sultan Iskandar Muda Airport in Banda Aceh on Saturday, Antara reported.

The fire, which inflicted material losses of at least Rp 20 million, took place at Santan village at the border between Aceh Besar and Banda Aceh.

"The incident caused most of Banda Aceh's residents to miss the latest world news on Saturday," chief of Aceh's Indonesian Journalists Association (PWI) Adnan N.S. was quoted as saying.

Adnan, who is also the owner of the burned vehicle, said thousands of copies of newspapers carried by the truck were delivered from the North Sumatra capital of Medan and Jakarta.

He said the arsonists were riding a motorcycle, and apparently were targeting a certain newspaper publishing company based in Banda Aceh.

Prior to the arson, the company in question had received threats by an anonymous caller, Adnan said.

"But they missed the target because the minitruck belongs to me, not the newspaper publishing company," he said.

He urged the local authorities to investigate the case and arrest the arsonists.

Chairman of the PWI central board Tarman Azzam also deplored the incident, Adnan said.