One killed, 45 houses burned down in Aceh

Ibnu Mat Noor, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh

One person was shot dead and 45 houses were burned down during a clash between Free Aceh Movement (GAM) guerrillas and dozens of security personnel in Buket Makarti village, Tanah Luas, North Aceh, on Tuesday, just a week before peace talks are to take place in Geneva on May 8 and May 9.

Yusni Abdullah, a social worker with the People's Crisis Center in North Aceh, told the media here on Tuesday this latest clash also displaced 165 people, including children, who are now being sheltered at Polytechnic Institute in Lhokseumawe.

He said the one fatality in the clash had been identified as Abdul Wahab, 30. The deceased was shot when the soldiers were patrolling the village, located five kilometers from the ExxonMobil gas and oil plant in Lhoksukon.

On Sunday, six people believed to be GAM rebels were killed during a clash with the military in North Aceh.

Yusni said people in the regency were afraid to leave their houses as a result of this recent escalation of violence.

Besides the recent violence in North Aceh, 175 people are taking refuge at the campus of the Ar-Raniry Islamic Teaching Institute and the office of the Jeumpa Mirah non-governmental organization (NGO), after their houses in their villages in South and East Aceh were burned down.

The killing and intimidation of civilians in Aceh has sparked increasing protests from various quarters and local NGOs, who say the continued violence has derailed any chance for success at the planned peace talks.

GAM has insisted on international mediation at the talks, in order to ensure it receives equal treatment with Indonesia. The government and the Indonesian Military have set as a condition that the peace talks must be held in the context of the unitary state of Indonesia, meaning that independence for Aceh is off of the table.

Ibrahim Tibo, a GAM negotiator, said the presence of third- country mediators at the talks and a multinational peacekeeping force in Aceh were necessary to develop mutual trust on both sides.

The peace talks will amount to nothing and nothing will change in the province if the military continues killing civilians and intimidating them, he said.

"There is no need for the two sides to hold further talks if both sides do not begin at the same starting point and with the same perspective," he said.

The Information Center for a Referendum in Aceh (SIRA) was in agreement that a third party was necessary at the Geneva talks.

"The prolonged conflict must be resolved peacefully. More and more people will be killed if both sides are not ready to stop the violence," Faidal Ridha, the spokesman for SIRA, said.

Separately, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Djali Yusuf, the head of the Iskandar Muda Military Command overseeing Aceh, ruled out GAM's conditions, saying the government and the military would reject the presence of third parties at the talks and foreign peacekeepers in the province.

"The military will never allow any foreign interference in the country's affairs, because that will not solve the conflict. We can solve the conflict internally," he said.

He also said the presence of refugees in the provincial capital had been engineered to attract international attention to the conflict.

Muhammad said security authorities would guarantee the safety of the refugees if they wanted to return to their homes.

"If they were really facing threats and intimidation from security personnel, then other people in the two regencies would also be taking refuge," he said.