TNI claims it has killed GAM deputy governor

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.