Retired captain shot dead in Aceh
Retired captain shot dead in Aceh
JAKARTA (JP): Unidentified gunmen shot dead a retired army
captain in the latest incident of violence in Aceh, a newspaper
reported on Sunday.
Rahmat Raden, 60, former chief of a subdistrict military
command, was shot on Saturday by two men riding on a motorcycle
in Panton Labu, North Aceh, the Kompas daily said.
Troops patrolled the area and shops were closed following the
killing, it added.
Aceh has experienced rising violence after 41 civilian
protesters were shot and killed by troops in the North Aceh
village of Krueng Geukueh in early May.
North Aceh, East Aceh and Pidie are the regencies hardest hit
by clashes between soldiers and separatist rebels.
Military leaders have blamed the Free Aceh Movement for a
series of violent acts including arson, abductions and robberies
in the province which have claimed dozens of lives.
Local leaders and rights activists fault the government for
its failure to solve gross human rights abuses allegedly
committed by troops while the province was under a military
operation status from 1989 to 1998.
More than 50,000 refugees have fled to camps in Pidie, North
Aceh and East Aceh in the past few weeks due to fears out of
clashes between soldiers and rebels.
Local activists said 10 refugees died of malnutrition and
disease in refugee camps in Pidie and North Aceh since last
month, with hundreds more ailing, mostly with diarrhea and
respiratory tract infections.
Hostilities since early May have left more than 100 dead.
About 400 houses, schools and government offices have been set
ablaze in disturbances.
Meanwhile, chairman of the Aceh chapter of the Muslim Students
Association (HMI), Mohammad Saleh, called on Muslim leader
Abdurrahman Wahid, who is popularly known as Gus Dur, to cancel
his planned visit to the province later this month.
"Gus Dur should not come to Aceh because he does not know
anything about Aceh," Saleh was quoted by Antara as saying on
Sunday.
Abdurrahman told reporters here on Thursday that he would
visit Aceh on July 17 "to learn about the real situation in the
province". Acehnese students boycotted Abdurrahman when he
campaigned for the National Awakening Party in the province in
May.
Saleh believed Abdurrahman would be unable to help in ending
the province's troubles.
"HMI believes that only the Acehnese will be able to solve the
Aceh problem," he said.
He recommended instead that Abdurrahman urge President B.J.
Habibie and Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Wiranto to
immediately prosecute alleged perpetrators of human rights
violations in Aceh.(byg)