Skirmishes yield 4 rebel deaths in Aceh
Skirmishes yield 4 rebel deaths in Aceh
Agencies, Jakarta
The Indonesian Military (TNI) shot dead four separatist rebels including a suspected senior figure as it marked the first half of its major offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Troops killed three suspected GAM members on the outskirts of the town of Lhokseumawe on Monday, military spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said in Lhokseumawe on Tuesday.
"It is probable that one of the victims held an important post in the GAM structure or had close ties with the leaders of GAM," Yani said, without identifying the rebel leader.
He said a list of phone numbers of GAM leaders was found in his pocket.
Soldiers killed another rebel during a raid in the Susoh area of southwest Aceh on Monday, said local military commander Capt. Syahrial. The victim was said to have been seeking medical treatment for a gunshot wound to his arm.
A primary school principal was found shot dead at Sakti in Pidie district on Monday, said district military chief Lt. Col. Abdurrohim Siregar.
He had been abducted by GAM guerrillas a day earlier on his way home from attending an Indonesian Independence Day ceremony in Sigli, Siregar said.
Residents of Idi Rayeuk in East Aceh said seven civilians were injured by two blasts there late Sunday. Attackers had fired grenades through a launcher at an area where a crowd was watching an Independence Day display.
Trucks and buses resumed operations on Tuesday along the main road linking Banda Aceh and Medan in neighboring North Sumatra province, Antara reported.
Drivers had stayed off the road for three days. The news agency said they feared attacks after three vehicles were torched by an unidentified group some 70 kilometers east of Banda Aceh.
In his assessment of the first three months of the operation, Army chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu said the military personnel had managed to improve their discipline, which resulted in minimum casualties among the TNI.
"The outcome is great, there were a few unnecessary (military) fatalities. In the first month of the operation we lost too many troops," Ryamizard said on the sidelines of his visit to the Army's Special Forces education and training center in Batujajar near Bandung.
He said the troops had improved their discipline, thanks to the strict law enforcement applied on errant soldiers. Three soldiers received a prison sentence for violence against civilians during a raid to find rebels who were hiding in a village early last month.
Security and order has been restored to a large extent in the province, according to the Army chief, except for several blasts that marred the anniversary celebration of Indonesia's independence on Sunday. "The explosions were just part of GAM's efforts to assert their existence," Ryamizard said.
The military says 704 guerrillas have been killed and more than 1,500 others have been arrested or have surrendered since the operation was launched on May 19.
The military says it has lost 45 soldiers and the police 13 personnel. Antara reported 191 civilians have also been killed so far.
The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, has questioned military figures on the number of rebel fatalities. It says there is no way to verify whether all of these were really guerrillas or whether some were civilians.
Later on Tuesday, troops and local residents in Cirik village in Aceh Jaya regency exhumed two graves believed to belong to former servicemen who were killed by rebels in 2000.
One of the servicemen was identified as a low-ranking Army soldier, M. Jhoni Cut and the other was police officer Safrizal, chief of Teuku Umar military command overseeing northern Aceh Col. Geerhan Lantara said.
The graves were situated near a hill in a remote area in Aceh Jaya.
Jhoni was a security guard of state telecommunication company PT Telkom before a group of Aceh rebels abducted and eventually killed him.
The troops only found some hair believed to belong to Safrizal, who like Jhoni, was kidnapped before his death.
"His remains might have fallen into the ravine as the grave had eroded," one of the military troops said.
Local people also informed the TNI of the presence of five more graves that might have been used to bury a number of civilians killed by the separatist rebels. But the TNI troops were unable to exhume the remaining graves due to poor light.
Aceh's martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya inaugurated a course for 381 former rebels, including six women in Aceh Besar district on Monday. The course aims to teach them job skills and a "national" outlook.