Teenager shot in Aceh shootings dies in hospital

JAKARTA (JP): One of seven injured victims of the May 3 shootings in North Aceh died on Sunday night, Antara reported on Tuesday, bringing the death toll to 41.

The director of Zainoel Abidin Hospital in North Aceh, Cut Idawani, was quoted as saying that the condition of Yuni Afnita, 15, had continued to deteriorate from the day she was admitted for gunshot wounds.

She sustained serious wounds to vital organs, including her intestine which was penetrated by a bullet, Idawani said.

Yuni, a resident of Lancang Garam village in Dewantara district, survived only a few days after undergoing surgery.

The agency said that as of Tuesday, 44 others were still being treated at Lhokseumawe General Hospital in North Aceh.

The military has said its personnel fired upon Kreung Geukuh villagers in self-defense.

An additional battalion has been sent to the province, where locals are said to be still traumatized by military operations held between 1989 and 1998.

On Monday, a leader of the Free Aceh movement, which was blamed for the tragedy in Dewantara district's Kreung Geukueh village, denied the movement had anything to do with it.

Idawani said other victims sent to his hospital by Lhokseumawe General Hospital and whom are being treated in the intensive care unit are Sofyan, 25, Nurdin M. Sabil, 35, Muhadir, 27, Muzakir A. Thaleb, 29, Saridin, 27, and Mulyadi, 13. All are Dewantara residents.

Sofyan was said to be in the worst condition, with gunshot wounds to the abdomen.

On Saturday, the coordinator of the Jakarta-based independent Committee for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, Munir, who visited the patients, said the wounds proved that soldiers shot at unarmed, helpless civilians -- not people engaged in armed combat as the military claimed.

Ambon

Meanwhile, the capital of Maluku saw renewed violence on Friday when a brawl between high school students ended with 14 homes being set on fire.

Some 300 have died in the province in religious and ethnic violence and tens of thousands have become refugees.

The brawl begun on Friday, police said as quoted by Antara on Tuesday. There were no reports of casualties.

Maluku Police spokesman Maj. Philipe Jekriel said the brawl involving three villages in Baguala district began on Friday, and on Saturday afternoon three residents of Laha village were assaulted. Antara did not specify in which village the assault took place.

The suspect of the assault, identified as JH, is a resident of Tawiri village.

The residents returned to their village and later attempted returned to the site with about 50 Laha residents carrying an assortment of sharp weapons, Philipe said.

They headed toward Tawiri village but were blocked off by security personnel at the Air Force residential complex.

At around the same time a resident of Hatu village identified as YT told others that Hatu was to be attacked by Tawiri villagers.

The agency reported that a former official in Hatu received an anonymous phone call saying crowds from Laha would attack Tawiri.

Five hundred villagers of Hatu then headed for Tawiri and burned down eight homes in Kampung Air Tengah. They headed for Laha but were intercepted by security personnel.

On Sunday night, crowds from Tawiri burned down another house in Laha and another five in Kampung Mendes.

Military Commander Col. Karel Rahalahu said he had handed over six suspects to the police.

Also on Tuesday it was reported from Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi that so far 13 infants have died of diarrhea at refugee facilities in Bau-Bau, Buton island amid efforts to sustain around 45,000 displaced people here.

The head of a student group channeling aid for the refugees, Alifuddin Zuhri, said despite much support coming in the sheer number of refugees made adequate help difficult.

The head of the South Sulawesi Student Contact Forum said medical supplies were still lacking.

The agency also quoted Governor M. Saleh Latuconsina on Tuesday as saying that two islands in Maluku province, Seram and Buru, were ready to take in refugees, mainly those whose homes were burned down in the communal violence which began in January.

Saleh said the first phase would see the settlement of 1,250 families. The settlement project is being conducted in cooperation with the Ministry of Transmigration.

He said those relocated to the transmigration sites of Seram and Buru, which in the past housed political prisoners, would be provided with homes, land and agricultural equipment.

The governor said that homes of victims and public facilities were being rebuilt with the support of the central government, which would provide Rp 10 billion. The help of other local and international organizations, he said, was significant in resuming activities such as schooling. (anr/27)