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)