Shooting of Germans followed procedures: TNI

Shooting of Germans followed procedures: TNI

The Jakarta Post, Lhokseumawe, Aceh

The martial law administrator in Aceh dismissed the possibility
of conducting a further investigation into the shooting of a
German couple, concluding that the soldiers who killed one of the
foreign tourists and wounded his wife had not violated the rules
of engagement.

Aceh military operations commander Brig. Gen. Bambang Darmono
said the troops had followed the procedures based on the results
of an investigation and the admissions of the German woman,
Elisabeth Engel, who said the shooting was an accident.

"This kind of action can be justified," Bambang told a press
conference on Friday.

He said the soldiers had warned the couple before they opened
fire on them.

The man, Lothar Heinrich Albert Engel, 53, after being shot in
the chest six times on Wednesday night, while his 49-year-old
wife sustained a bullet wound to her right knee.

Bambang said that the two Germans were tourists who had
arrived in Indonesia on May 20, one day after martial law was
imposed in Aceh.

Although they knew that Aceh was at war, they remained in the
province, but they were shot on their way back to North Sumatra.

According to Bambang, the couple were traveling by bike.

"They usually reported their presence to the local military
posts as they passed," he said.

He said he met Engel, who told him that she understood the
shooting was an accident, on Thursday.

Quoting her written statement, he said the Germans thought the
soldiers' questions and the warning shots were not directed at
them.

"I, Elizabeth Engel, say that we will sleep on this beach, and
I know it was a very dangerous area, and it was not good to do
this in this situation," she said in a statement which was
written in poor English.

Darmono would not say in what circumstances Elizabeth wrote
her statement, copies of which were distributed to journalists

The officer said that on the night of the incident, the couple
were camped on a beach about 30 meters away from the sea.
Separated by a strip of palm trees was the backyard of the house
of Zakaria, a resident of Lhong Gayo village. His parents, who
lived with him, had recently received a threat from Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) rebels, because his brother, Buchori, worked for
the military.

Darmono said Zakaria saw "suspicious" flashlight beams behind
his house, and fearing it might be GAM, reported his suspicions
to a military post one kilometer away.