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)