| |
Indonesia's
demoralized and badly trained troops earned a lasting
reputation for brutality during a 10-year period in the
1990s when military rule was introduced in Acheh in an
unsuccessful bid to crush the rebellion.
|
|
 O
ONE ELSE WAS HURT in the
incident, which occurred Tuesday afternoon at the
elementary school in Ulee Ateung village, in eastern Acheh.
Indonesian officers confirmed the deaths, but said the
paramilitary policemen were trying to engage guerrillas of
the Free Acheh Movement.
"The victims were killed by stray bullets as police
were targeting rebels," East Acheh Police Chief Abdullah
Hayati said.
|
|
|
| iNTERNET:
WASHINGTON POST, MSNBC and BBC |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
related
stories
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The deaths in Ulee Ateung
came despite assurances by President Abdurrahman Wahid that
the army and police would refrain from causing civilian
casualties in their current crackdown against the
insurgents.
Indonesia's demoralized and badly trained troops earned a
lasting reputation for brutality during a 10-year period in
the 1990s when military rule was introduced in Acheh in an
unsuccessful bid to crush the rebellion.
Officials said five other people - including a policeman
hacked to death by villagers - were killed Tuesday.
A rebel commander, Tengku Darwis Djeunieb, said none of the
victims were members of the Free Acheh Movement.
The fighting, in which more than 6,000 people have died
since 1990, has sharply escalated in recent months. The war
has claimed about 100 lives each month since the beginning
of this year.
The intensifying combat also forced U.S. energy giant Exxon
Mobil Corp. (XOM) to suspend natural gas production in the
province. Acheh, a province of four million people located on
the northern tip of Sumatra island, accounts for a third of
Indonesia's liquefied gas exports.
|
