Police told to solve rector's murder in Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): The assassination of the rector of Syiah Kuala University, Dayan Dawood, was strongly condemned on Friday.

The Indonesian Rectors Forum, Syiah Kuala University and the American Embassy demanded that the police seriously work to uncover the crime and not to let the case disappear into thin air the way they have done with numerous other crimes in Aceh.

The 54-year-old professor was shot dead in his car by two unidentified men riding a motorbike near the university campus on Thursday.

"The murder was a barbaric act and we want to see the authorities catch the assassins and then take them to court," said Eko Budihardjo, honorary chief of the Rectors Forum in Semarang, Central Java.

Dawood is a member of the forum, which had planned to become involved in efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Aceh.

Eko questioned the police's seriousness in dealing with politically motivated murders in Aceh. "None of the numerous cases have been brought to light," he said.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels and the military have been engaged in a blaming game over Dawood's murder. GAM immediately blamed it on the military. But Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said here on Friday that it was the work of GAM rebels.

GAM's objective, according to Susilo, is to sabotage the government's will to settle the conflict peacefully.

"The late Dayan Dawood was known as a moderate figure who tried to promote a peaceful solution in the troubled province of Aceh. Unlike GAM, Dawood welcomed the autonomy that central government had given Aceh," he said.

The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta said in a statement it was shocked and deeply saddened to learn of the tragic murder of the rector.

"This indeed is a tragedy... We urge the Indonesian Government to pursue and bring to justice the perpetrators of this senseless crime. We call on all the people of Aceh to eschew violence and to pursue the path of peace," the statement said.

The demand for a thorough investigation also came from Syiah Kuala University in Banda Aceh.

The University's Students Consultative Assembly also demanded an investigation into the killing of other Aceh figures, such as Safwan Idris, the rector of the State Institute of Islamic Studies last year.

Assembly chairman Masri Gandara M. said in a statement that he read out in front of 3,000 students that the killing of academics was part of the tactics to make the people of Aceh uneducated, Antara reported.

Syiah Kuala University closed for three days as of Friday and flags are flying at half-mast in mourning of the rector's death. Students at Syiah Kuala University held a mass prayer for Dawood before he was buried at his home village of Lhoknga, Aceh Besar regency.

Hasanuddin Yusuf Adan, secretary of the Aceh Islamic Propagation Council, said that Dawood's murder and many previous similar incidents showed that security authorities in Aceh had failed to do their job.

He said the murders gave credence to the claim that Aceh was not a safe place because the system did not work.

Hasanuddin suspected that Dawood's assassination was part of efforts being carried out to set the people of Aceh one against the other.

He pointed out that Jakarta's inaction to solve the various unexplained murders has allowed unrest in Aceh, resulting in people carrying out killing sprees without fear of being caught.

"The continuing murders in Aceh and the inaction of the central government to stop them can only mean that Jakarta no longer wants Aceh to be one of its provinces," Hasanuddin said. (pan/tso)