GAM spokesman killed in police raid
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.