Public services return to normal in Aceh

Ibnu Mat Noer and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh/Medan

Public services in restive Aceh were gradually returning to normal on Wednesday, a day after the 25th anniversary of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Government offices resumed their services to the public and most shopping centers and traditional markets in towns throughout the province reopened after being closed on Tuesday.

The public transportation system, which was completely paralyzed on Monday and Tuesday, had returned to normal, although most people going to Medan in North Sumatra preferred to travel by passenger ship.

Security personnel from the local military and police remained on alert in strategic positions in many corners of the city in anticipation of possible attacks by the separatist movement.

GAM celebrated its 25th anniversary in secret locations in remote areas of the province on Tuesday following the local security authorities' crackdown on separatist activities.

A total of 17 people, including six military and police officers, were killed in separate clashes between security personnel and rebels in the province.

Five of the 17 were killed in a gunfight in South Aceh and four in East Aceh, while four rebels were shot to death in Bireun, some 200 kilometers northeast of the provincial capital.

Lt. Col. Agus Permana, chief of the South Aceh Military Subdistrict, said four rebels and a soldier were killed in a fierce gunfight that broke out as security personnel were patrolling a rebel stronghold in Jambo Papeun, North Kluet.

"Three other soldiers and an elderly woman were also injured in the assault," he said, adding that the soldier killed in the incident was identified as Second Private Sukiono of Madiun in East Java.

Lt. Col. Firdaus Komarno, spokesman for the Aceh Military District, said the four rebels killed in Bireun were handed over to the local people to be buried, while two soldiers who suffered serious gunshot wounds had been hospitalized in the city.

He also said three local people, Nur Usman, 51, Roslan, 17, and Sudirman, 30, were seriously injured after a bomb believed to have been planted by the rebels exploded near a government office in Lhokseumawe.

A rebel, identified as Zakaria, 30, was shot dead in the Bireun bus terminal, he added.

He reiterated that the security forces would continue to crack down on the increased separatist activities, in a bid to bring calm to the province.

Firdaus said further that two rebels had also been killed during an incident in a palm oil plantation in East Aceh.

"The clash occurred when security personnel were searching for the plantation company's executive Arsiswandi, who was believed to have been kidnapped by the rebels", he said.

Two soldiers, Zulkifli and Sanusi, who were injured in the clash, were brought to the government-run general hospital in Langsa.

In Medan, North Sumatra, a number of bus operators have returned some of their vehicles to the road as part of a trial to test security along the Medan-Banda Aceh highway.

Bus companies PT Kurnia and PT PMTOH deployed just four vehicles to transport hundreds of travelers who had been stranded at the intercity bus terminal since Monday.