Local women discover two bodies in Pidie
BANDA ACEH, ACEH (JP): More than 100 women who were combing a forest in Pidie regency on Tuesday found a dead body of a man believed to be one of several men reported missing since the Indonesian Military conducted an operation there three days ago.
The women from the villages in the southern part of the district of Meureudu said that the corpse, identified to be of Tengku Puhari, 30, was found in the Dije river with a gunshot wound to the head.
But none of them claimed to be the wife or relative of the dead man.
A local told The Jakarta Post that he could have been a member of GAM (Free Aceh Movement).
The women carried the dead body on foot walking 13 kilometers before burying it.
Hours later residents of the village of Lhok Alue Bata in the district of Ulim found a dead body of a 12-year-old girl.
Local authorities confirmed that the girl, with gunshot wounds and her arms tied with rope, was Zahriadi Nurdin, who was reported missing on Saturday.
The housewives returned to the forest to search for more bodies with food supplies to be cooked in the forest.
Aisyah Ahmad, one of the housewives, said one of her relatives was among the missing persons.
"We believe that at least four of the dozens of people who had fled to the forest (due to the Indonesian Military operations) had been killed," Aisyah said.
She said several residents saw the four people being taken by TNI personnel into the forest on Monday minutes before gunshots were heard.
Chief of TNI operations at the Meureudu District Maj. Anjar Wirasna was not available for comment when The Jakarta Post tried to contact him on Tuesday.
On Monday, police claimed that GAM members killed 16 migrants in a series of attacks on the Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages on Sunday and early Monday.
In Lhokseumawe, Central Aceh, a total of 42 people were killed by an unidentified group who had attacked the district of Bandar last week.
The deputy chief of TNI operations in Aceh, Col. M. Jali Yusuf said when visiting the victims at the Takengon hospital on Monday that the brutal attack must have been conducted by AGAM, the military wing of GAM.
In Jakarta, Indonesian Military Chief Adm. Widodo said in a hearing with Commission I of the House of Representatives (DPR) on Monday that TNI could not crush the rebels within one to two years.
"TNI will continue its operations to weaken the (rebel) movement. The operation was based on a presidential decree."
He added that the presence of two Army battalions from East Java which have been conducting civic mission programs had won the hearts of the Acehnese people. "This has apparently angered the separatist rebels which led them to kill so many civilians in Takengon, Central Aceh." (50/51/rms/sur)