GAM warns of attacks on state facilities
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Acehnese separatist rebels have warned civil servants to stay away from state facilities, which they plan to attack.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Tengku Sofyan Dawod said from the group's foreign base in Norsborg, Sweden, that the prior warning was issued to avoid futile fatalities in the long- standing conflict.
"In a state of war, public and economic facilities belonging to the warring nations are legitimate targets of military attack, except for health centers, schools and cultural places. It's our obligation to inform or order a clearance of those facilities, and any civilian casualty as a result of defiance is beyond our responsibility," Sofyan said in a statement released on Sunday.
He said the warning was not intended to provoke or intimidate civilians because it was regulated by international humanitarian law.
"Civil servants remain simply civilians as long as they do not involve themselves in the conflict. Civilians deserve protection during a state of war according to the Geneva convention and nobody can trespass that right," Sofyan said.
Thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed and hundreds of public facilities, including schools, attacked in the protracted armed fight between GAM and Indonesian security troops, which dates back to the mid-1970s.
Security authorities always blame the losses claimed, both human and material, on the rebels.
Sofyan denied GAM was responsible and said that in many cases military operations by the Indonesian Military (TNI) and police had resulted in human rights violations.
"GAM invites TNI and National Police to stop arguments about civilian casualties. Let the monitoring team from the Henry Dunant Center (HDR) determine who committed human rights abuse," Sofyan said.
HDR has facilitated a series of peace talks between the Indonesian government and GAM in Geneva, the latest one taking place on May 9 and May 10.
In the latest violence in Aceh, two men were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on motorbikes in front of a junior high school in the Cunda area of Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, on Monday.
Yusuf Passe, an activist with the local human rights group PB- HAM, told AFP the attack caused panic among hundreds of children. Students were sent home early following the incident.
One of the victims was believed to be a GAM member. No confirmation was immediately available from police, but Sofyan said both victims were civilians.
Earlier on Sunday, local military command spokesman Maj. Zaenal Muttaqin said TNI personnel killed a rebel and confiscated an automatic rifle and ammunition during a raid on a suspected GAM base in Bukit Teumpon, East Aceh, on Saturday.
Muttaqin also said GAM members led by Tengku Anas had abducted three employees of a plantation company in Darul Makmur, West Aceh. The whereabouts of the three workers remain unknown.
It is the second case of abduction in less than a week after GAM rebels kidnapped nine female students last Wednesday.