Two more soldiers killed in Aceh

Two more soldiers killed in Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): A group of at least 10 unidentified armed men
bombarded a truck of security troops with a volley of gunfire
killing two soldiers and wounding six others in West Aceh on
Thursday.

District Military Commander Col. Sarifudin Tippe said on
Friday that the troops from the 112th Dharma Jaya Infantry
Battalion were attacked on the way home to Banda Aceh from
securing the polling process, which was canceled earlier, at
Lamno, a subdistrict in West Aceh.

The troops were in a military truck with a commander riding
separately in a car in front when the unknown assailants attacked
at about 5:30 p.m. on the steep and winding road at the foot of
Geuruetee hill, Tippe said at Kesdam military hospital in the
provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

According to Tippe, the commander of the infantry battalion
was unharmed as were the attackers, Antara reported.

"The car driven by the battalion's commander was not even
scratched by a single bullet, he said.

The two fatalities in the 45-minute fight were identified as
privates Tomy and Irawadi.

"Tomy was shot in the head, while Irawadi bled to death after
sustaining a serious wound to the foot," Tippe said.

The six injured were Sgt. First Class Sutrisno, Sgt. Second
Class Sofyanuddin, Privates Darmadi, Rusdi and Wislan, and Hery
Wahyudin. They're all between 26 and 31 years old.

All are still being treated at the military hospital with gun
wounds to different parts of the bodies.

The troops were heavily stormed by gunfire from the group
about five minutes after they left Lamno.

Tippe said the soldiers were attacked by the unknown
assailants from the upper part of the hill.

Tippe vowed to search for the brutal attackers shortly after
they complete the task to secure the ongoing election's voting
and counting process.

He further urged all Acehnese, particularly those residing
across the province, to stop suspicions of security forces
present in Aceh as they were deployed to secure the province.

"As long as the Aceh people remain suspicious of the troops,
it means that they're still giving room for the separatist
movement," Tippe said.

The troubled province of Aceh has been ignited by a serious of
"mysterious attacks" against police and military personnel,
security forces offices and other public facilities in the past
few months.

The provincial Ministry of Education and Culture disclosed on
Friday that as many as 72 schools in the area were reportedly set
ablaze by unidentified groups in the past one month.

The damaged buildings consisted of 41 elementary schools, 26
junior high schools and five senior high schools.

Thirty-one of the schools set alight are located in Pidie
regency, 26 in North Aceh, six in West Aceh, five in South Aceh,
three in East Aceh and another in Central Aceh.

The arson attacks on the schools in the province will leave
tens of thousands of students, who are currently on holidays
until next week, unable to continue studies temporarily.

Thousands of teachers will also be jobless .

But chairman of the regional chapter of the Indonesian
Teachers Association (PGRI), Amudy, insisted that none of the
40,000 members have left the province so far following the arson
attacks.

"We've never received any reports about teachers who have fled
or been expelled from those areas," Amudy said.

The Jakarta Post correspondent reported from the North Aceh
capital of Lhokseumawe that 31 schools have already been burned
by the unidentified armed group, causing 30,000 students to
temporarily stop attending and 1,000 teachers jobless.

"We have not yet found any buildings that could be temporarily
used as schools for the students," Ishak Alibasyah, head of the
North Aceh education office, said on Friday.

No parties, including the Free Aceh separatist movement (GAM),
have declared themselves responsible for the arson attacks on the
schools.

The military continues to blame GAM members for committing the
vandalism.

But GAM chief of administration affairs, Tengku Zainuddin,
alias Tengku Beutong, denied the role of his personnel in any of
the school attacks in the province.

"It's impossible for GAM soldiers to burn schools which is
against Islamic teaching," he told the Post on Friday.

Beutong said the arson attacks were the work of the Indonesian
military, which attempts to tarnish GAM's image.

He said that GAM intelligence officers have learned that the
recent disorders in the province were masterminded by
provocateurs as well as 48 personnel from Kopassus, the
Indonesian elite force.

These Kopassus members grouped in the Elang (Eagle) team have
asked the Acehnese to pretend as GAM members and create disorders
in the province so that Jakarta would dispatch more troops to
Aceh, Beutong said.

He therefore asked the Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander
Gen. Wiranto to pull out the 48 Kopassus personnel from the area
in order to let the Acehnese enjoy the peaceful surroundings.

From Jakarta, TNI spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif asserted
that Beutong's remarks were untrue.

"TNI have withdrawn all Kopassus members from Aceh. There's no
Kopassus personnel in Aceh," Syamsul told reporters.

He said it's the GAM members who often pretended as Kopassus
members to create commotions in the province.

The local military, Syamsul said, arrested GAM member Irwan
bin Baharudin Noor, 26, recently. Acting as a Kopassus member,
Irwan was nabbed while spying on the location, target missions
and a number of the Police Mobile Brigade units in Lhokseumawe,
he said. (bsr/46)