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.