Banda Aceh – Two [student] members of SIRA (Aceh Referendum Information Centre) were seriously wounded early on Thursday morning (24th November) [as received] after being caught in a hail of bullets and having a hand grenade thrown at them by men in military style fatigues riding a trail bike in the vicinity of Geuceu Meunara village, Banda Aceh. The two victims were at the time engaged in humanitarian work, trying to help local people deal with threats and and robbery by unknown persons.
Shortly before the attack against the students, and not far from the location of that incident, members of army Battalion 112/DJ found the bodies of two men, who according to the 012/TU Military Provincial Command [MPC] commander were GAM [Free Aceh Movement] members...
SIRA coordinator Muhammad Nazar told reporters yesterday that the SIRA members shot were [Iswandi (20) and Muksalmina (23)]. Several other members were also wounded...
[SIRA member] Alfian said that, one hour after taking the two severely wounded members to hospital, they returned to the scene. "On close examination of the area we found six M-16 cartridge cases made by Pindad [military ordnance factory], and one grenade pin. We lent the pin and two of the cartridge cases to the police, for further investigation," said Alfian.
Alfian and his colleagues said that they had at no point seen the bodies of the two men alleged to have been shot in Geuceu Meunara.
Referring to the incident, Nazar said that his group's fears had been realised. He claimed that they had been deliberately lured to the area. It was proof that somebody wanted to see a state of military emergency declared in Aceh...
Commander of 012/TU MPC Col Syarifuddin Tippe told reporters yesterday at Battalion 112/DJ headquarters [about finding the two bodies of "men from Pidie", along with a vehicle, an FN pistol and five bullets, 15 M-16 bullets, registration papers for other vehicles, two hand-held radios, a mobile phone, two swords, and other papers; Tippe claimed that the men were GAM members killed