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Fresh violence claims at least nine more lives in Aceh

Source
Agence France Presse - July 9, 2001

Banda Aceh – At least nine people and possibly up to 14 died in weekend violence in Indonesia's blood-drenched Aceh province, the military and residents said Monday.

Soldiers killed three members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on Sunday in a raid on a house at the Pusong Baru village in North Aceh, residents and rebels said. "The three were sleeping in the house when they were shot at from the roof," a witness who requested anonymity said. A local GAM spokesman confirmed the killings of his colleagues.

The Serambi daily quoted local military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus, as saying the raid followed a tip-off from a rebel who had surrendered, but he declined to name him. A handgun with ammunition, one hand grenade and a list of names were confiscated, he said, adding that in the Samadua subdistrict of South Aceh, 10 GAM members had surrendered to the local military on Friday.

Troops also raided a suspected GAM base in the forest of Krueng Batee in South Aceh on Sunday after the arrest of a local commander, the military's Lieutenant Colonel Purwanto told the Serambi. But the base was empty when troops arrived and they only found radio communication equipment, ammunition and one home-made bomb.

A military spokesman, Major Edi Sulistiadie, said two rebels were killed in a 15-minute gunfight with soldiers on Saturday at Sapik in South Aceh. South Aceh GAM spokesman, Ayah Manggeng, told the Serambi a man who was taken away from his house in Padang Sawah by Indonesian police Saturday was found dead with gunshot wounds the next morning.

On Sunday, another body was found in the Keude Sibleuh area of South Aceh Sunday, residents said, while an aid worker said the decomposing corpse of a school janitor was found near a West Aceh beach on Saturday.

The body of a resident was found on Saturday in the Blang Malu area of Pidie district and seven other villagers were missing after a recent police sweep, a human rights worker said. "According to the residents the victim ran when he saw police entered the area to search for GAM hideouts," the activist, who asked not to be named, said. He said police also arrested three other residents.

Meanwhile, a GAM spokesman, Ishak Daud, claimed that Indonesian security forces shot dead five civilians and torture 14 others in the Afdeling plantation area in East Aceh on Saturday. But the claim could not be immediately confirmed with the police.

More than 1,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed this year in violence involving the separatist rebels and security forces. Casualties have increased since the government began to deploy more troops in Aceh in April to crack down on the rebels who have been fighting for an Islamic state in the oil-rich province since the mid-1970s.

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