New violence mars fragile Aceh peace
New violence mars fragile Aceh peace
Ibnu Matnoor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
The killing of four Acehnese in the latest spree of violence
on Saturday has increased the distrust between the government and
the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), pushing their three-month-old peace
agreement closer to the brink of collapse.
Two Acehnese burned to death when an unidentified armed group
set fire to 12 cars during a sweeping operation near the town of
Takengon in Central Aceh.
A drive-by shooting near the town of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh
killed another two.
"The peace agreement has reached a critical period," said Aceh
observer Otto Syamsuddin Ishak of the Civil Society Alliance for
Democracy (Yappika) in Jakarta.
He said that despite the steady progress in implementing the
articles of the peace accord, mutual confidence on both sides was
running thin.
The Indonesian Military (TNI) and GAM blame each other for the
violation of the cease-fire accord, showing little of the
confidence building that the agreement demanded.
In Takengon, a group of about 40 men stopped vehicles passing
the village of Burlintang in Pegasing district, some 15
kilometers southeast of Banda Aceh, and eventually set fire to 12
cars and four motorcycles.
It was not clear why they burned the cars after ordering
everybody inside to step out. Two people were killed in the fire.
Spokesman of the Iskandar Muda military command, Lt. Col.
Firdaus Kamarno, said witnesses described the group as not
resembling members of either the police or the military.
He suspected they were GAM. When soldiers and police arrived
on the scene, the group had already left, Firdaus said.
Meanwhile, Amri Abdul Wahab, a senior GAM commander and a
member of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) peace monitoring
body, said GAM was not involved.
Instead, he said the Takengon incident was likely the work of
pro-Jakarta militias who had the backing of the military.
Elsewhere, some 10 kilometers east of Lhokseumawe in North
Aceh, two people were shot dead by unidentified men in a drive-by
shooting.
Amri said one of the victims was a GAM police officer,
26-year-old Azhar Z. Abidin. The other victim was identified as
24-year-old student Sayuti.
Azhar, said Amri, was his adopted younger brother and was
about to get married on Sunday. "This morning, he should be
sitting with his family at the wedding reception," he said.
The two victims were riding a motorcycle to shop for the
wedding, when an unmarked vehicle pulled up and shot them.
The killer stepped out and drove away with the victim's
motorcycle, while a terrified crowd stood witness to the crime.
Otto suspected the Takengon killing and other recent incidents
seemed to follow a strategy designed to wreck the peace accord.
"There are obviously some parties who will lose out if the
peace agreement holds," Otto said, suspecting that these parties
belonged to the government and the military.
He also criticized GAM for failing to restrain itself from
raising the issue of independence, which TNI had used as the
reason for its continued heavy presence in the province.
The peace agreement is essentially a cease-fire agreement on
which to negotiate peace. But GAM has been telling Acehnese that
the accord could later lead to independence, while the government
said it signified the start of Aceh's permanent integration into
Indonesia.
GAM has been fighting for the independence of its resource-
rich province for 26 years, in a war that has claimed some 12,000
lives.