Banda Aceh – A series of explosions that left at least seven people injured, including a five-year-old boy, in the country's troubled province of Aceh rumbled Indonesia's anniversary of independence, police officials said Tuesday.
While city residents and villagers around the country celebrated 59 years of independence from Dutch colonial rule, two men lobbed a grenade into a crowd Monday night in the northern district of Aceh province, where rebels have been fighting for an independent Moslem state for almost 28 years.
The attack came while people were kicking off celebrations for Tuesday's Independence Day with various festive activities in the province, some 2,000 kilometres northwest of Jakarta, Aceh police spokesman Senior Commissioner Sayed Husaini said.
"Seven people, including a five-year-old boy, were injured in the blast," Husaini told reporters.
Several explosions also rocked the province's South Aceh district and the capital of Banda Aceh, Husaini said.
Military authorities also claimed that three rebels were shot dead during gunfights in three different districts of Aceh on Monday, and three other rebels surrendered to government authorities.
The government imposed martial law in Aceh, on the northern end of Sumatra, on May 2003, simultaneously launching a massive military offensive against separatist rebels in the province.
On May 19 of this year, martial law in the province was lifted and a "civil state of emergency" was declared, handing administration over to civil authority.
However, military authorities have maintained the deployment of more than 30,000 soldiers in Aceh to fight against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in an effort to end a nearly three-decade-long rebellion in the province.
On Tuesday, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri opened an Independence Day ceremony at the Presidential Palace, attended by more than 6,500 guests, which included foreign diplomatic corps, high-ranking military and government officials.
Megawati gave no speech during the ceremony, which was marked by the hoisting of the Indonesian red-and-white flag.
Residents living in cities throughout the world's fourth-most-populous nation celebrated the country's Independence Day with neighbourhood feasts, traditional games, sporting activities and other community activities.
City residents and villagers decorated their homes with red and white banners and flags, while others strung up colourful lights.
Indonesia won independence on August 17, 1945 after almost 350 years of Dutch colonial rule.