Banda Aceh – At least five people were killed in Indonesia's unruly province of Aceh as a police spokesman said Wednesday security forces had launched a new offensive against separatist rebels there.
A soldier and a civilian were killed in armed skirmishes between security forces and suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the Matangkuli area of North Aceh district Tuesday, local military chief Lieutent Colonel Suyanto said. Suyatno said the civilian was killed by a stray bullet.
Troops torched several houses in the area in a sweep to hunt down guerilla members after the clashes, residents said.
But rebel spokesman Ismail Syahputra claimed 31 members of security forces were killed in the fighting.
"They [soldiers] had come to the area in 17 motorcycles and two trucks. Our troops sprayed the trucks with bullets," Syahputra said.
Meanwhile, Aceh police spokesman Sayed Husaini said security personnel could no longer afford to use defensive measures in the face of intensifying armed attacks by separatist rebels. "Starting February 1, a full offensive has been in force," Husaini told journalists here.
Husaini said the new operation to hunt down rebels involved personnel from the elite mobile brigade police unit and police bomb-defusing squads, adding that soldiers would serve as reinforcements when needed.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, two police were wounded when rebels threw a grenade at their convoy in Pidie district, police Lieutenant Colonel Erry Subagyo said. An unidentified body with gunshot wounds was later found near the area, a local health clinic said.
Meanwhile, in South Aceh district, a village chief was shot dead by an unidentified man while he was at home with his family, and residents also found the body of an NGO activist in the South Aceh subdistrict of Sawang, a local journalist said.
Police spokesman Husaini said at least 460 people have been killed and hundreds others wounded in clashes between security forces and rebels and their supporters since May of last year. The dead included 108 members of the security forces, 241 civilians and 111 rebels, he added.
Police also recorded 335 cases of murder, 66 cases of abduction, 50 ambushes and 200 arson attacks, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile, the Detik online news service quoted a a legal aid foundation in Aceh as saying 115 people have been tortured, 21 people died in summary kilings, and 33 were arrested arbitrarily in January alone.
"Intimidation and terror have resulted in the people losing their basic rights and conflict areas have spread to [the districts of] Banda Aceh, West Aceh, South Aceh, Central Aceh and Aceh Singkel," foundation activist Rufriadi said.
He said troops from outside the province continued to be deployed in Aceh despite orders by President Abdurrahman Wahid to withdraw all outside troops. "The facts on the ground shows that the president's instruction is a mere rhetoric," he said.