Gunfire in Aceh quake zone
Gunfire in Aceh quake zone
Gunfire amid the tsunami debris as military still battles rebels in Aceh quake zone
Agencies Banda Aceh/Lhok Nga
Armed soldiers ran towards the beach still littered with debris from last week's earthquake and tsunamis.
"There was just an exchange of fire down there," said a civilian witness in this former beachfront recreation area just outside Banda Aceh.
Thursday morning's clash happened in waters just off a beach that housed a former military engineers and infantry compound which was reduced to scattered bricks by the wall of water.
"There was contact between TNI and separatists," said a Kopassus army special forces soldier aboard an Indonesia Military (TNI) speed boat earlier seen racing along the shore.
He said the rebels got away.
The barefoot commander of the Kopassus team, his shirt untucked, refused to discuss the incident.
A military spokesman admitted last Friday that despite the disaster an offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) was continuing, although it may be scaled down as troops devote a large portion of their time to relief efforts.
One day after the Dec. 26 disaster, military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto called for a temporary ceasefire to help aid efforts. A day later, the exiled rebel leadership in Sweden said it had imposed its own unilateral ceasefire.
"They're not brave enough to bother us in the daytime," said a soldier stationed Thursday about one kilometer down the beach road, in front of the badly-damaged Semen Andalas cement plant, in which France's Lafarge and Swiss-based Holkim are majority owners.
"They're trying to provoke us," said the soldier, who reported gunfire coming from the hills at night.
In the daytime, small groups of people use the beach road to travel between the capital and villages about a two-day walk away.
"You won't give that to GAM will you?" a soldier asked as he inspected the belongings of one man in front of a tent offering drinks and medical aid to the pedestrians.
Troops say GAM may have acquired uniforms and weapons from the destroyed base nearby. "The weapons disappeared and people say GAM took them," one soldier said.
Or perhaps they were taken by the unimaginable wall of water which knocked down many of the shoreline's trees.
U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland has called on governments and rebels in tsunami-hit Sumatra, Sri Lanka and Somalia to keep the peace or risk aid totaling US$3.7 billion.
"We need that cease-fire, that peace, to hold because if new conflict breaks out, we cannot help the people," Egeland said on Wednesday.
Despite the shooting report aid continued to flowing smoothly at Banda Aceh airport.
"As far as I know there aren't any hold ups," said Michael Elmquist, who heads the U.N. operation here.