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.