Farouk Arnaz & Ezra Sihite – An Aceh lawmaker's home was shot at and attacked with fuel bombs on Tuesday, an act that appears to undermine official claims that the province is calm and secure following a recent spate of violence.
The home of Misbahul Munir, the deputy chairman of the North Aceh District Legislative Council from the Aceh Party in Kota Makmur subdistrict, was targeted in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
"The perpetrators are unknown and are still being investigated. The evidence, five bullet casings, means that the assailants used a rifle or [a handgun]."
Ten members of House of Representatives Commission III, which oversees legal affairs, are scheduled to visit Aceh today to gather information on the recent series of shootings and violence.
Nasir Jamil, the deputy chairman of the commission who also represents Aceh, said the area was now "tense," adding that coffee shops, a popular institution in Aceh, closed early and there were few vehicles on the roads in the evening.
Six ethnic Javanese have been shot dead in multiple attacks since Dec. 30 in Aceh. In the latest incident, last Thursday two construction workers from Java were wounded and another killed after a man sprayed shots at a group of workers resting after dusk in Aceh Besar.
Nasir said the commission planned to meet with the local police and military chiefs to discuss the matter of firearms still in circulation there. "We want to know who surrendered [weapons], when, and whether compensation was paid," he said.
Under a peace treaty signed in 2005 with the pro-independence Free Aceh Movement (GAM) ending almost three decades of violence, the guerrillas had to surrender their weapons for destruction. However, many believe only a fraction of the weapons were given up and that many are still circulating.
Meanwhile, the House was scheduled to hold a meeting to discuss Aceh with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djoko Suyanto, and Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi.
Also invited were the heads of the National Police, armed forces and intelligence, as well as the heads of the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu).
House Deputy Speaker Priyo Budi Santoso said the meeting was to ascertain that the series of fresh violence in Aceh was, as the government claimed, purely criminal and had nothing to do with the upcoming provincial, district and municipal elections on Feb. 16.
Nasir believed the violence was linked to the elections, saying that "if it is said that these cases have no links to politics and to the elections, that is just untrue."
Meanwhile Tubagus Hasanuddin, deputy chairman of House Commission I, which oversees home and foreign affairs and defense, said the elections should be postponed to allow dialogue to settle the problems in Aceh.
He has argued that the problem stemmed from the dissatisfaction of former guerrillas whose welfare had not improved despite past democratic elections in Aceh.
"On the problems in Aceh, some said it is politics, the government said it is violence. The essence is how to distribute the [prosperity] cake between the GAM elite," Tubagus said.