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At least six more civilians die in troubled Aceh

Source
Agence France Presse - March 22, 2000

Banda Aceh – At least six civilians have been killed or found dead this week in the Indonesian province of Aceh which has been wracked by fighting between separatists and soldiers, police and hospital sources said Wednesday.

Troops shot dead Ismail, 35, and wounded Amri Ali, 39, in the district of Pidie on Tuesday, district Police Chief Lieutenant Colonel Endang Emiqail Bagus said. Ismail was shot in Ujongrimba, some 20 kilometres from Sigli, the main town in Pidie, while soldiers were in pursuit of two armed men. "Security personnel were then just entering a coffee stall but suddenly four men ran away, including the victim. The security personnel fired warning shots but the four kept on running," Bagus said. The three others escaped, he said. Ismail died of his wounds in hospital.

In Neuheun, Pidie, on the same day, soldiers also shot a man identified as Ali after he sped away on his motorcycle when hailed by a road patrol, Bagus said. Ali was being treated at the state hospital in Sigli.

In West Aceh, the body of a man missing since the previous day was found in Langoe, said hospital sources in Meulaboh, the main city in West Aceh. Another body was found in Bireun, North Aceh on Tuesday, hospital sources there said.

The second body, with gunshot and stab wounds, was found in Geulumpang Payong village. On a cigarette box wrapping found on his neck was written that the victim was Captain Kairil Majid bin Sulaiman, a member of the local military intelligence. But Jeumpa sub-district military chief Captain Zulkifli Wednesday denied the victim was an intelligence officer or a member of the armed forces.

In Panton Rayeuk, East Aceh, another body with his hands tied behind his back was found floating in the Idi river on Tuesday. The victim was a local farmer who had been missing for three days.

In Inunung Ketek, South Aceh, a fishmonger was also found dead on Tuesday. The victim was last seen alive as he was being dragged out of his house by a group of armed men late on Sunday, residents there said.

Finally on Monday, a teenager sleeping in a house was burned to death as members of the police, combing the area for rebels who had killed two policemen in an ambush on Sunday, inadvertently shot into drums of fuel. The drums exploded, setting fire to a nearby house where the victim was sleeping, the Serambi daily newspaper said.

Violence involving Indonesian soldiers and separatist rebels of the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) Movement has already cost more than 300 lives this year. The Free Aceh movement has been fighting for an Islamic state since 1976.

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