PPRM clarifies fact in Aceh shooting
PPRM clarifies fact in Aceh shooting
LHOKSEUMAWE, Aceh (JP): The joint-military Crack Riot Troop
(PPRM) task force on Wednesday revised details of violence which
left six people dead a day earlier in Peudada district.
PPRM task force commander Col. Ridwan Karim told The Jakarta
Post here that Tuesday's incident began when houses of
transmigrants from Uleu Keute village of the Peudada district,
about 55 kilometers west of here, were set on fire.
"A group of 100 PPRM personnel together with local medical
staff were hastily deployed to the scene in a truck after a
report was received from the Uleu Keute village chief," Ridwan
said.
He was told that houses of the transmigrants (mostly from
Java) had been set ablaze by a group of people armed with AK-47s.
Two transmigrants, identified as Yanto and Zulkifli, were
incinerated in the fire, he said.
The truck carrying the PPRM personnel and the medical staff
were about six kilometers from the village when gunshots,
allegedly from Free Aceh separatist guerrillas, were fired at
them at 11:15 p.m., Ridwan said.
"PPRM personnel also had the chance to fire back for about 30
minutes. Unfortunately, they were in a bad position, while the
rebels were easily aiming at our personnel from the top of the
hill," the officer said.
According to Ridwan, the guerrillas shot dead PPRM members
Second Sgt. Hendrik Silian from the Army and Pvt. second class
Dominggus VC Taufan as well as Dr. Fauzia, head of the Peudada
health center and her fellow staff member, Mustapha.
"Fauzia was four months pregnant and an Acehnese. Which
Islamic rule allows Free Aceh separatist movement rebels to kill
a pregnant female physician?"
Eight other PPRM personnel, most of them holding senior ranks,
together with three other medical staff, were still in a serious
condition at Lhokseumawe and Biereun hospitals, he said.
One of the injured, Peudada Police subprecinct chief Second
Lt. Naharuddin, was in a critical condition with a gunshot wound
to the head.
Early version
A few hours after the incident, Indonesian Military (TNI)
spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif said at least 20 members of
the rebel group launched an assault on a transmigration
resettlement area in the Peudada district, killing two
transmigrants, two officers and two medical staff.
He gave no further details about the incident.
Six other people were injured when the rebels attacked a
police station, he said.
PPRM, consisting of a battalion of 450 riot troops including a
bomb squad, intelligence officers and military police, was
dispatched from Jakarta to Aceh on May 7 to restore law and order
to the province.
In a related development on Wednesday, an NGO activist for
humanity affairs, Acehnese Suraiya Kamaruzzaman of Flower, said
in her testimony on military atrocities in Aceh that Free Aceh
separatist guerrillas were not involved in Tuesday's incident.
"From our (organization's) experience, it's impossible that
they (rebels) killed civilians, since their doctrine prohibits
them from doing that," she told an audience of activists and
reporters at the International NGO Forum for Indonesian
Development office in South Jakarta.
"Our organization members had met them several times and they
did not kill our members, even though we're indeed easy targets
to be killed by them."
Suraiya believed the killing was masterminded by certain
parties in order to create renewed violence in Aceh. (46/01/bsr)