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