Rampage marks troops withdrawal from Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): Thousands of people ran amok on Monday in Lhokseumauwe, about 250 kilometers east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, following the pullout of the second batch of combat troops from Aceh province.

The agitated crowd threw stones at a number of stores located in several streets and looted shops that sold basic commodities a couple of hours after the soldiers had left.

People had gathered along the main roads of this small town of about 600,000 residents to watch a convoy of 659 troops being withdrawn from the Aceh Military District headquarters.

As the military trucks passed by, people yelled insults and pelted them with various objects. The angry residents then vented out their frustration on shops along the roads.

Antara quoted witnesses as saying that the action targeted properties owned by people of Chinese descent.

"The rioters pelted stones at shops on several streets and then they looted basic commodities shops," one witness said.

Aceh Military District Chief Col. Dasiri Musnar and Lhokseumauwe police subprecinct chief Lt. Col. Iskandar, who were on the scene, made an attempt to calm people but failed.

All shops, offices and schools closed following the incident.

A Golkar chapter office adjacent to the bus terminal in town, a hotel and several beauty salons were burned by the mob.

Neither Dasiri nor Iskandar could be reached for comment last night.

The situation calmed after troops were deployed onto the streets from the military district headquarters.

Withdrawal

Most of the 659 combat troops pulled out on Monday returned to their home barracks in North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau. Also included among them were 28 soldiers from the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) who began a trip to Jakarta by ship from the North Sumatra seaport of Belawan.

The soldiers were seen off by Brig. Gen. Hindartono, chief of staff of the Bukit Barisan Military Command which supervises Aceh, North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau, in a military ceremony.

The soldiers were the last batch of 900 who were deployed over the past decade as part of the Jaring Merah (Red Net) Operation in the province to crush separatist guerrillas.

The first batch left the province on Aug. 20, 1998.

ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto decided to pull out the combat troops and lift the province's status as a military operations area, following mounting criticism over human rights violations by the troops in the province.

The National Commission on Human Rights, which conducted an investigation in Aceh recently, announced that it believed at least 781 alleged victims of the atrocities were buried in mass graves in several locations in the province.

Hindartono said the Armed Forces would, for the time being, maintain 186 marines to combat the rampant smuggling of basic commodities from the province's eastern coastal areas.

Col. Dasiti Musnar, chief of Aceh Military District, said that despite the pullout he was optimistic the Acehnese could maintain security in the future.

East Timor

Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara and East Timor, claimed that all combat troops would eventually be withdrawn from East Timor.

"We have long been planning to withdraw our troops (from East Timor) and this is not due to foreign pressure," Damiri said in Bali on Monday.

He said the military would only retain health detachments and a territorial task force once it had withdrawn all its combat troops.

More than 1,000 troops have recently been withdrawn from East Timor but four battalions consisting of about 4,000 troops remain.

"Their task however is only to assist the East Timorese in noncombat areas," Damiri said. (rms)