LAKSAMANA.Net, October 19, 2003 09:38 PM
Review - Regions: Aceh Toll Rises
Laksamana.Net - The military says more than 900 Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
rebels have now been killed since the start of the offensive on May 19, along with 66
members of the security forces. More than 1,800 have been arrested or have
surrendered.
Two rebels were killed early on Tuesday (14/10/03) in separate firefights with troops in
Pidie district in northern Aceh, military spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said.
Two others were shot dead in a clash at Lhoknga in Aceh Besar district on Monday,
he said.
Rebels also shot dead a 32-year-old woman in Abeuk Tingkeum village in Bireuen
district on Monday and abducted a 20-year-old woman at Jeumpa in Bireuen.
Residents found the bodies of two men with torture marks floating in a river in East
Aceh on Monday night.
Basuki said soldiers rescued four of five civilians, including a four-year-old girl, held
hostage by rebels at Peureulak in East Aceh on Monday.
He also said two rebels were killed in a clash in Aceh Besar and Bireuen districts on
Saturday, while the body of an unidentified man was found at Meunasah Bee in North
Aceh.
Martial law will expire on November 19 as stipulated in the original presidential decree
imposing emergency status in Aceh though the president may order a six-month
extension.
The government has already hinted it will extend martial law, saying security must be
maintained in the province to enable the Acehnese to vote in next year's elections.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Social and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono said the final goal of the military offensive in Aceh was to restore security
among the people.
He said Acehnese would not feel safe to go out or to exercise their political rights if
the security situation remained uncertain.
Earlier, TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto said the TNI planned to maintain 35,000
troops in Aceh "to make sure that all Acehnese people will be able to exercise their
political rights."
Susilo asserted that the military would be given the authority to assess whether or not
the emergency status should be extended, and that TNI leaders would go to Aceh in a
few days to observe the latest developments.
He admitted that many had objected to the extension of martial law, fearing that it
would affect the election process.
SIRA Alleges Violations
According to Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) the military killed at least
414 civilians, arrested 900 and tortured 600, and sexually assaulted or raped 60
women in the first four months of the operation there.
SIRA said the final toll was likely to be far higher. "This is only 25% of the total
number of deaths and human rights violations, but because of the intimidation towards
non-governmental groups and the media, collecting evidence is extremely difficult,"
said a spokesman.
The organization's chairman, Mohammad Nazar, is serving a two-year jail term for
campaigning for a referendum.
At least 14 human rights activists have been detained and about 200 have gone
underground, SIRA said. Several others have been charged with either terrorism or
treason.
State prosecutors last week demanded a 14-year sentence for a woman charged with
treason for organizing a demonstration in favor of an East Timor-style referendum, and
at least one activist has been summarily executed, according to SIRA.
Military spokesman Colonel Ditya Sudarsono said he could not comment on SIRA's
claims.
However, police said last month 319 civilians had been killed and 108 others were still
missing as of early last month.
Treason
A court on Saturday (18/10/03) sentenced a GAM rebel to 11 years in prison for "the
act of treason with aims to separate Aceh province from Indonesia".
Heri Nurmansyah, 22, had been accused of taking part in bombing attacks on the
residence of Aceh's deputy police chief and a public bridge in 2000.
The court said Nurmansyah had also served as a GAM "fund collector" since 2001.
His lawyers said they would consider an appeal.
Prosecutors at a separate trial on Saturday also demanded university lecturer Irwandi
Yusuf be jailed for 14 years for treason.
They said Yusuf, a lecturer with the state Syiah Kuala University here, should be
jailed because he had participated in "activities connected to GAM's efforts to
separate Aceh" from Indonesia.
Yusuf had written a speech for GAM chief commander Muzzakir Manaf used by rebel
negotiators during peace talks with Indonesia in Geneva three years ago and acted as
a deputy for rebel top spokesman Sofyan Daud.
Yusuf had been detained since May 23. His trial continues next week.
C. Sulawesi: Second Front
Police said Saturday (18/10/03) they had killed three men and arrested five suspected
of involvement in a string of deadly attacks in the province.
The suspects were captured after a gunfight near Poso on Friday night, Central
Sulawesi police spokesman Agus Sugianto told Reuters via telephone from Poso.
"We arrested a total of eight men, three of who were killed in a gunfight last night,"
said Sugianto.
Police said they had seized homemade rifles, pistols and ammunition at the scene
and officials from Jakarta were heading to the site for further investigation.
At least 2,000 people have died since the conflict erupted in 1999.
On Monday a bomb blast rocked Betania village in Poso regency as police intensified
the hunt for masked gunmen who killed at least nine people in earlier raids in the
religiously divided area.
There were no reported casualties after the bomb exploded outside a house ahead of
the planned visit of Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono.
The target was close to the three villages of Saatu, Pantangolemba and Pinedapa,
where masked attackers killed nine people, mostly Christians, in simultaneous raids
at dawn on October 12.
Yudhoyono arrived in Central Sulawesi capital Palu on Tuesday, along with officers
from the military and the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), and held a closed-door
meeting with Governor Aminuddin Ponulele.
He visited Poso, some 200 kilometers from Palu, on Wednesday to assess the
situation and hold talks with local religious leaders.
"Let our intelligence officers continue their investigation over the next five days to
unravel the incident," the minister said.
Some 2,000 police and troops have been sent to prevent a major flare-up of
Muslim-Christian violence, police said.
Local police authorities have not yet determined whether Friday's pre-dawn incident
was connected with recent violence in Poso, said Brigadier General Sunarko,
spokesman for the national police, who added an investigation was still underway.
On Thursday Yudhoyono said combat troops would be put on offensive in the province
to crush what he called the "security disturbance movement" in the area.
Welfare minister Yusuf Kalla said on Monday the recent attacks were not carried by
people involved in the old conflict.
He said the killings might have been carried out by sympathizers of Muslim militants
convicted of last year's Bali bombings and of the bombing at a McDonald's restaurant
at Makassar in neighboring South Sulawesi province.
S. Sulawesi: More Bombers Jailed
Five men were on Thursday (16/10/03) sentenced to between seven and 12 years in
jail for their roles in last year's deadly bombing of a McDonald's restaurant and a car
showroom in Makassar, capital of South Sulawesi province.
Makassar District Court sentenced Masnur bin Abdul Latif to 12 years; Ilham Riyadi,
Usman Nuraffan and Anthon bin H. Labasse to eight years; and Lukman to seven
years, state news agency Antara reported.
Four other accomplices have been jailed for between six and eight years on similar
charges.
E. Timor: Militiaman Jailed
An East Timorese court on Monday sentenced a pro-Jakarta militiaman to 10 years
and six months in prison for murdering two pro-independence supporters.
Domingos Mendonca, 43, of the Tim Ablai militia, was also found guilty of forcibly
deporting villagers to Indonesian-held West Timor in the days after the territory voted
overwhelmingly for independence from Indonesia in 1999.
The military set up the Ablai militia and others like it to intimidate East Timor's
800,000 people into voting to continue being a part of Indonesia.
Aided by the army, the militias killed more than 1,000 people before, during and after
the ballot. The violence only stopped when international peacekeepers arrived under
the command of the Australians.
Most militia members fled to neighboring West Timor after Indonesian troops withdrew
from their former province.
Mendonca, who was arrested in 2001, was found guilty by a three-judge panel in the
murders of Luis Boco Siri and Agapito de Araujo in central East Timor between April
and September 1999.
Bali Bomber Gets Life
The Denpasar District Court on Thursday jailed Islamic militant Mubarok for life for his
part in the Bali bombings on October 12, 2002, which killed 202 people.
Judges said Mubarok, alias Hutomo Pamungkas, was guilty of a "crime against
humanity" for his role in the attack.
Mubarok is a self-confessed member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI)
terror group blamed for the bombings and is the fifth key suspect to be sentenced.
Three others were earlier sentenced to death and one to life imprisonment.
Chief judge Nengah Suryadi said the bombings were an "extraordinary crime and a
crime against humanity".
He said Mubarok also admitted bringing weapons to Ambon in eastern Indonesia, the
scene of bloody Muslim-Christian battles, and to the capital, Jakarta.
Mubarok, the judge said, was also directly involved in a church bombing in Mojokerto
in East Java -- one of a series of JI church bombings nationwide on Christmas Eve
2000 that killed 19 people.
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