Eight die in new violence in Indonesia's Aceh province

14/05/2001| IslamWeb

JAKARTA, (AFP)-At least eight people were killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province, residents and aid workers said.

The bodies of a man and a woman were found on Friday in the Babah Lueng village in the northern Aceh district of Bireun, a humanitarian activist said Saturday.

He said the corpses bore gunshot wounds.

Separately, five men were found dead with gunshot wounds in separate places in North Aceh Friday, said an Indonesian Red Cross activist, who declined to be identified.

Residents said two of the dead were shot by security forces conducting a serach for rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The military could not be reached for comment.

In another incident Friday, a man was killed by a stray bullet fired by Indonesian troops searching for rebels in the Bukit Drien area of East Aceh, residents said.

The GAM has been fighting since 1976 for an independent Islamic state in the oil- and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra island. More than 1,600 people have died this year alone.

Pro-independence sentiment has been fueled by Jakarta's draining of the province's natural resources and harsh military operations in the last decade.