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Aceh Bombings Mars Indonesian Independence Day
JAKARTA, Aug 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Indonesia celebrated its 56th independence day with a strong message from the restive province of Aceh where several bombs exploded Thursday and Friday.
Hundreds of Indonesian soldiers were patrolling the streets of a Banda Aceh, the provincial capital of the territory on Friday after 16 small bombs exploded overnight in the city and authorities unearthed a mass grave containing 48 bodies.
At least 30 blasts were heard around Banda Aceh on Thursday night and Friday morning, greeting the Indonesian Republic's independence celebrations.
On Wednesday the city was filled with armed soldiers after bus drivers successfully observed a strike ordered by unknown sources and several shop owners.
Bus operators in Aceh have been ordered to halt operations or risk having their vehicles torched. Dozens of schools throughout the province have been set ablaze.
The military has blamed the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), saying they aim to prevent Independence Day celebrations in schools.
An assembled bomb exploded at the garbage dumpster in the compound of the Serambi Indonesia daily in Banda Aceh Friday around 1:30 a.m., officials said.
The Serambi Indonesia newspaper had stopped operations earlier this week after it received threats from the GAM over articles published against the movement.
The GAM said it would attack the newspaper if it did not retract what it calls "lies" and "inexactitude" over the massacre of 31 people in a plantation field last week.
The police spokesman of Aceh's Law and Operation Order, Commader Sad Harunantyo, told TheJakartaPost.com that another bomb exploded around the same time at the Syiah Kuala University compound in Darussalam area of Aceh Besar regency.
Several buildings, including two banks, were damaged in the incident. GAM members also set fire to a BNI'46 bank in the university compound.
No casualties, however, were reported in the both incidents.
Observers in Jakarta said the bombing was a response to a speech made by Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's first woman president, concerning the situation in Aceh.
She said the Indonesian government was sorry for the violence and trouble in the province and invited warring factions to come back to the fold of a "new Indonesia."
The GAM on Friday again rejected Megawati's appeal by saying that their position is strongly pro-independence. In a phone conversation with Zaini Abdullah, IslamOnline was told that nothing has changed in the political struggle of the GAM.
Abdullah added that the Acehnese people are "really angered by the speech, a simple sorry is not going to erase years of oppression."
In Jakarta, officials of the new government are taking the situation in Aceh very seriously.
On the day of Independence, the Minister of Political Affairs, Bambang Yudhoyono, offered to visit the restive province to see for himself, on the terrain, the veracity of the situation there.
"A few other ministers will also go on this trip to make an evaluation of the situation." Yudhoyono said in Jakarta.
Yudhoyono believes that the people of Aceh were threatened into not celebrating 17th August, the day of Indonesia's independence. "Who intimated them?" he asked.
"We should note that there has been an opening made by the President who suggested that there should be a negotiated settlement of the crisis.
"However, there are quarters that believe such statements are not valid and not worthy of consideration.
''One more time I say to the Acehnese people, please respond positively to the proposals by the new president'' Yudhoyono added.
Meanwhile, security forces discovered a gravesite Thursday near Lhong village in West Aceh, containing 48 bodies. Both sides are accusing one another for the killings.
Bombs and grenades also exploded in Lhokseumawe, West Aceh.
Violence in Aceh on Indonesia's independence day, and on December 4th, the year the GAM was formed, have become a regular staple in the country.
The Acehnese people will only allow the Indonesian flag to be floated on the 17th of August, and during the day only. At night, the GAM's flag flies throughout the city.
This year, military and government workers are flying the Indonesian flag on several houses and offices that they occupy; the first time in several years.
Many Acehnese said they were forced to raise the Indonesian red and white flag in order not to be tagged GAM supporters and potentially face the military's wrath.
The GAM has waged a campaign for 25 years for an independent Islamic state in the fervently Muslim region. More than 1,100 people, mostly civilians, have died this year alone in Aceh.
Meanwhile, the Group of the Islamic Student Movements (PB HMI) attacked both the GAM and the military as responsible for the violence in Aceh.
The group said the United Nations (U.N.) should hold both warring factions responsible for the killing of the villagers on August 8th.
Indonesia gained independence after a long war against Dutch invaders and the Japanese army during World War II. Its first president was Ahmad Sukarno, the father of Megawati Sukarnoputri.
With additional reporting by Kazi Mahmood
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