TNI claims it has killed GAM deputy governor
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Lhokseumawe/Nusa Dua
The Indonesian Military (TNI) has announced that it killed a high-ranking official of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) structure as the war against the rebels enters a "difficult phase."
Tengku Ibrahim, known as the deputy governor of GAM overseeing Pase regency in North Aceh, was shot dead in an armed clash in Nisam district late on Wednesday, spokesman for the military operation Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said on Thursday.
"Ibrahim was shot during a clash between rebels and a unit from TNI Battalion 501 Infantry Airborne Trisula," Yani said. The troops discovered the body of Ibrahim on Thursday morning in the neighboring village of Sidomulyo.
Yani said the soldiers planned the raid on Ibrahim and his group following information from residents.
"A tip from the residents at Alue Mbang hamlet in Nisam said that a group of GAM members just entered the hamlet for dinner, and one of them was Tengku Said Adnan, who is GAM's governor for Pase. We planned to ambush them but failed as a small group of them attacked us before we reached the location," an officer with the battalion told reporters.
There were nine rebels killed during separate firefights across Aceh on Wednesday, taking the death toll of separatists killed to over 500 according to military sources, as the renewed hostilities enter the third month since peace talks broke down on May 18.
Martial law administrator Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said after two months of the offensive, it was reaching its most difficult phase as the military would intensify efforts to separate civilians from the rebels.
"This is a daunting challenge as we have to split people from the separatists physically and mentally," Endang said in Banda Aceh.
Apart from continuing the offensive, the military and police will have find a way to convince the Acehnese to be loyal to Indonesia and reject independence.
"On one hand, the operation to restore order will go on, but on the other hand we need to approach the poor people so they will find that the separatist ideology is difficult to accept," Endang said.
Meanwhile, in Nusa Dua, Bali, the Swedish government said it was still examining whether the evidence submitted by Indonesia was sufficient to take legal measures against GAM leaders in exile in the Scandinavian country and would probably be done by early September.
Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Deputy Director General for Political Affairs Eva Walder-Brundin said on Thursday the attorney general's office was currently going through the legal evidence provided by Indonesia last month.
Brundin had a meeting with Indonesia Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda late on Wednesday evening, on the sidelines of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM).
"The evidence is at the prosecutor general's office, that procedure is likely to be completed by the end of August or beginning of September," Brundin told The Jakarta Post and Kompas.
She said the ongoing process in the prosecutor's office was an independent procedure that the government could not interfere with.
Indonesia's special envoy Ali Alatas visited Sweden last month to present legal evidence against GAM leaders -- Hasan Tiro, Zaini Abdullah and Malik Mahmood - who have been living in Sweden and who have obtained citizenship.
Jakarta claims they are involved in the separatist movement in Aceh and responsible for a series of bomb attacks in the capital and several major cities in Indonesia since year 2000.