Associated Press, Banda Aceh – Violence again marred the fasting month of Ramadhan in Aceh as three students and four police personnel were severely injured in separate incidents in Jeumpa Aceh regency over the weekend.
A doctor at the Merdu subdistrict community health center in Aceh Jeumpa regency, Farhad, said on Sunday he admitted Second Sgt. Irvan, Second Sgt. Harry Triantoro and privates Eddy Agus and Sulaeman to a hospital in the neighboring regency of Sigli.
He said the four members of the Police Mobile Brigade were shot during an ambush by an unidentified group at about 2pm local time. They were near Pulau Baru village on the highway linking Aceh's capital of Banda Aceh and North Sumatra's capital Medan.
Witnesses said that a group of police later combed the village for the assailants. The police burned at least 12 houses and arrested dozens of people during the operation, they said. Public transportation in the regency came to a standstill after the incident.
The violence followed the shooting of three students in North Aceh on Saturday night. Rahmat Yahya, Putra Juanda and Said Mahfud Zikri were shot after failing to stop at a roadblock in front of the Peulsangan Police station.
Head of Peulsangan Police subprecinct Second Lt. Vredom confirmed the shooting and visited the three students shortly after they were admitted to Bireun Hospital, some five kilometers from the site of the incident.
The three have been transferred to Banda Aceh General Hospital. A member of the hospital's staff said that Rahmat suffered a wound to his back and both of his arms were broken. He said one of Rahmat's arms may be amputated. Putra was shot in the chest, while a bullet grazed Said's left temple.
Witnesses said that the three students, who were returning from the Islamic Students Association (HMI) congress in Jambi, were speeding in their Kijang van.
"The driver put on the brakes abruptly to avoid the barricade. Suddenly the police fired shots at the van," an eyewitness, who insisted on anonymity, said.
AFP quoted Capt. Muryanto of the North Aceh Police as saying that an armed civilian was shot dead and three others wounded in the Matang Geulumpangdua subdistrict Violence continued in the predominantly Muslim province despite appeals from all sides to exercise restraint during the fasting month.
Data from the Sadar Rencong II Aceh Police information post revealed that at least three police personnel were killed, two severely injured and two others abducted during the last 10 days. "The armed group has killed and kidnapped our personnel. We have yet to find the two abducted members, who possibly have been killed," the post commander, Maj. Sayed Hoesainy, said as quoted by Antara on Saturday.
Sayed said 35 police personnel were killed, 12 kidnapped and 34 severely injured in the last eight months. In addition, 40 soldiers were murdered, 64 severely wounded and seven abducted in the same period, he said.
The chairman of the provincial chapter of the National Commission on Human Rights, Iqbal Farabi, urged civilians and the military on Saturday to use International Human Rights Day, which fell on Dec. 10, as the impetus to end violence in Aceh.
"Both the military and the civilian armed group should stop their enmity because too many innocent people have fallen victim to their dispute," he said.
Aceh has been home to a growing clamor for independence and a separatist campaign waged by the Free Aceh Movement. President Abdurrahman Wahid has rejected the possibility of provinces seceding from the country.
In a televised interview on Sunday, Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew said Aceh would be a regional pariah if it declared independence.
"Can it have international relations, trade and an international voice? No country in Southeast Asia will recognize it," Lee said in a CNBC Asia TV interview, the text of which was provided to The Associated Press.