Six more killed in conflict-ridden Aceh

Six more killed in conflict-ridden Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: At least six male bodies were removed from jungle-clad Kaway XVI district in West Aceh regency on Friday and Sunday, Red Cross workers said on Monday.

The chief of Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) in Meulaboh, Rasmuddin, said that the bodies were recovered from deep in the jungle of Kaway, about a 15-kilometer, half-a-day walk from the nearest village.

A PMI team and locals on Sunday began the search for four residents who went missing in the jungle on Friday. The missing locals were collecting rattan from the forest.

The decomposing bodies of the four men were found with cuts and bruises all over their bodies. The four were identified as Amren, 50, Khairul, 22, Saiful, 50, and Zainal, 18. All of them were villagers of Teupin Panah in Kaway XVI district in West Aceh.

Locals and PMI workers placed the bodies in rugs and passed the remains across a ravine and down a hill.

Earlier on Friday, PMI workers removed two other bodies from the vicinity of the location of the four corpses. The two bodies were later identified as Zainuddin, 50, and Nyak Raden, 30, both from Cot Trueng village in Kaway XVI district, also in West Aceh.

No official confirmation was immediately available, but it was reported that residents heard gunshots coming from the woods on Friday.-- JP