Troops kill three suspected rebels in troubled Aceh
JAKARTA (JP): Troops killed three people and injured one more in a military raid on the suspected rebel base in the troubled province of Aceh on Saturday, security authorities said.
The National Police information office said in a statement on Saturday that the three suspected rebels were killed in an exchange of gunfire in Matang Seujuk village, some 45 kilometers east of the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe.
A separatist rebel group leader, Teuku Hidayatullah, however, claimed that his soldiers killed 12 police officers. He admitted that three of his group were missing.
Head of riot troops Col. Arsikin identified the dead rebels as Hamdani Abdullah, Suheri and Bukhori.
The police statement said a soldier, First Sgt. Rahmat Ali, was slightly injured in the shootout. He was rushed to a local military hospital.
It added that the wounded rebel, identified as Nasruddin Ali, was arrested by the North Aceh Police.
Police said Matang Seujuk village was suspected as the separatist stronghold and it was put under surveillance on Friday.
A team of Mobile Brigade personnel, marines and army troops were then sent to raid the village on early Saturday, police said.
Police said at least two rifles, hundreds of bullets and two flags of the Free Aceh separatist movement were seized in the raid.
Violence has been on the rise in North Aceh, East Aceh and Pidie where more than 70 people, including 41 civilians, were killed in attacks and counterattacks between the military and the alleged members of the Free Aceh separatist movement since May.
North Aceh, East Aceh and Pidie are the regencies which had been worst affected by a decade of antirebel operations during which the military was accused of widespread human rights abuses.
Calls for a referendum on self-determination and an election boycott have been the strongest in North Aceh, East Aceh and Pidie.
The separatist members have been accused by the military of intimidating residents to boycott the elections. They also have been accused of intimidating the migrant settlers to leave their villages.
Thousands of Acehnese, however, have also fled to school buildings and mosques in Pidie, North Aceh and East Aceh recently for fear of heavy military presence in their villages.
A humanitarian group unveiled on Saturday that the number of refugees had surpassed 36,000 thus far, with hundreds seeking shelter in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra.
One of the group's activists, Rina Syamsuddin, said most of the refugees had flooded Peurlak, Ulim and Ulee Glee subdistricts, all in Pidie.
Maluku
Separately, one man was killed and 12 others injured as fresh violence broke out in Southeast Maluku on Sunday with attacks on a Christian village, spreading tension to other areas.
Antara quoted Hati Kudus Langgur Hospital sources as identifying the casualty as 70-year-old Christopol Yamlean, who died from an explosion of a home-made bomb.
The agency reported that at least nine motorized canoes attacked the village of Waab in Kei Kecil district before dawn on Sunday and encountered armed resistance from the predominantly Christian villagers there.
The attackers were believed to have come from the island of Ut, some two hours by boat to the north, the news agency said.
It added that the Southeast Maluku district Police chief accompanied by the district military chief have gone to Waab.
But reports of the violence sparked tension in the Southeast Maluku capital of Tual with groups of people beginning to gather on the streets and soldiers, who had been deployed from Java since Muslim-Christian violence rocked the area in March, put on standby across town, Antara said.
Southeast Maluku, and particularly Tual, have been rocked by violent clashes between Muslims and Christians that left more than 130 people dead since March.
The violence spread there following similar clashes in Ambon, the capital of the province, which broke out in mid-January. At least 350 people have been killed in the sectarian violence in Ambon and other Maluku islands.(39/46/byg)