Two people killed in latest Aceh violence

Two people killed in latest Aceh violence

JAKARTA (JP): At least two people were killed, and 14 are
missing after a weekend attack on a logging camp in the troubled
province of Aceh, Antara reported on Monday.

The news agency said the camp at Krueng Tuan village in Nisam
district, some 30 kilometers south of the North Aceh capital of
Lhokseumawe, was attacked on Saturday by a group of unidentified
armed people.

Local police spokesman Lt. Col. Amrin Karim was quoted as
saying that police were still investigating the attack.

AFP, however, quoted witnesses who visited the site as saying
that at least four timber workers were killed, four were wounded,
while seven went missing.

Witnesses were also quoted as saying that they saw the graves
of the four killed during the attack on the camp.

A local human rights activist said on Monday that an
unidentified male body was found in Lhokseumawe in the late
afternoon.

"Residents found the mutilated body in Mongedong area in Banda
Sakti district at about 4 p.m. and it was taken directly to the
Lhokseumawe General Hospital," Yakob Hamzah of the Iskandarmuda
Legal Aid Institute told The Jakarta Post by phone from
Lhokseumawe.

Head of the hospital, Mulya A. Hasjmy, however, denied the
report, saying that no unidentified body had been received at the
hospital's morgue.

In the past few months Aceh has seen a sharp resurgence in
violence between Indonesian Military (TNI) soldiers and police
and Free Aceh movement (GAM) supporters.

At least 223 people have been killed in the conflict since
May. Hundreds of buildings, including schools, have also been set
on fire. Antara quoted officials from the crisis center of the
local health office as saying that more than 144,000 people were
still sheltering in mosques, schools and government offices
throughout the province.

More than 92,000 people are currently sheltering in Pidie,
while another 38,000 people are in North Aceh and East Aceh.
Outbreaks of diarrhea among refugees, due to unclean drinking
water, as well as skin diseases and respiratory tract problems,
have been reported.

An official was also quoted as saying that at least 35 people
in the refugee camps had died as a result of various diseases.

Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights Marzuki
Darusman met with a representative of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Jakarta last week. He said
the rights body wanted to see UNHCR expand its role in Aceh.

In a related issue, the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights
Association (PBHI) reported on Monday that the United Nations'
subcommission on human rights meeting in Geneva was marked by
attendees' condemnation of human rights abuses in Indonesia,
especially in Aceh.

The meeting, being held between Aug. 2 and Aug. 27, described
Indonesia as having committed gross violations of human rights in
Aceh, and expressed alarm over the growing "culture of impunity"
here.

"It's possible that the meeting may issue a resolution against
Indonesia," said PBHI spokesman R. Dwiyanto Prihartono, adding
that although Indonesia had one of the worst human rights
records, the country had never been on the receiving end of a UN
resolution. (byg/swe)