TNI sends 2,000 more troops to tense Aceh
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Military (TNI) dispatched on Thursday 2,000 troops for a humanitarian mission to Aceh, which is licking its wounds from recent floods.
Comprising soldiers from Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad), Marine, Air Force Special Force (Paskhas) and Army logistics unit, the legion departed aboard three Navy warships set off by TNI Chief of Territorial Affairs Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo from Tanjung Priok naval base.
TNI spokesman Air Rear Marshal Graito Usodo told The Jakarta Post the troops would focus on rehabilitation projects on public facilities, including hospitals, roads and school buildings.
"But if necessary the TNI personnel will be deployed to maintain peace and order there," Graito said, without elaborating.
The dispatch of reinforcement troops came ahead of the one-day visit of President Abdurrahman Wahid early next week to the natural resource-rich province which has long felt the passion of separatism.
Floods and a subsequent landslide befell Aceh earlier this month, killing at least 20 people.
Army chief of staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said earlier that three battalions of Kostrad had been sent to Aceh also for a humanitarian mission.
Tension in Aceh has been on the rise ahead of the planned visit of the President on Dec. 19, as the death toll in a series of violence since Monday reached nine.
Security measures have been stepped-up. Local residents claimed to have seen police and military personnel in civilian clothes patrolling in taxis and private cars.
Police Special Operation Cinta Meunasah spokesman Sr. Supt. Kusbini Imbar revealed on Thursday that a Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) member Pvt. Iskandar was killed and another officer, identified only as Muh. Sufi, was injured in an ambush in the West Aceh area of Lamo in Jaya district on Tuesday. The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels were blamed for the attack.
A local GAM spokesman Abu Tausi said the policeman was killed in a gunfight which occurred when the group of Brimob officers, clad in civilian clothes, was conducting a sweeping operation.
A similar attack was reported by South Aceh Police precinct chief Supt. Moch. Ali Husein, who said that three Brimob officers were seriously wounded in a raid by GAM rebels in Pasi Raja village in North Kluet district.
Local residents said a civilian was killed when reinforcement troops were searching for the rebels.
Earlier in Central Aceh, three masked men shot dead a retired military officer and his seven-year-old daughter in Balee Permata village in Bandar district. The former serviceman's wife, who was injured in the attack, is being treated in a local hospital.
Central Aceh Military commander Lt. Col. Rochana Herdianto confirmed the incident and identified the perpetrators as GAM rebels. However, local GAM spokesman Ali Gergeul Piraq denied the allegations on Wednesday, saying it would have been impossible for his men to enter the village due to its heavy security cordon.
Separately, head of Human Rights Care Forum Moh. Yusuf Puteh said on Wednesday that three bodies bearing severe wounds were found separately near the Arakundo Simpang Ulim river and on a street in Sungai Pauh village in East Aceh. (50/dja/lup)