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Thousands
of villagers have fled fresh fighting in Indonesia's Aceh province
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BANDA
ACEH, Indonesia, June 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - As
several thousand villagers streamed into a crowded refugee camp in
Indonesia's Aceh Sunday, June 15, to avoid fierce clashes which the
Indonesian security forces said have left 202 separatist deaths since
the fresh offensive was launched.
A
military spokesman, Colonel Ditya Sudarsono, said 202 separatists had
been killed, along with 21 soldiers and three policemen since the start
of the operation.
The
military has put the civilian death toll at 18, reported Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
Military
spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki said troops killed 12 Free Aceh
Movement (GAM) members in clashes in several districts on Friday, June
13.
"We
are continuing to besiege GAM bases and push them into a corner,"
Basuki said on Saturday, June 14.
He
said, however, that the separatists were "highly mobile,"
capitalizing on their familiarity with the rugged and hilly terrain.
Special
forces troops killed six GAM rebels in fighting in Kampung M3 village in
East Aceh Friday, the spokesman said, adding that six other separatists
were killed in two separate clashes in Aceh Besar district.
Soldiers
said they found three other separatist bodies Saturday after they fired
artillery on a suspected guerilla base at Juli in Bireun district the
previous day.
An
Indonesian Red Cross volunteer said he removed two bodies in civilian
clothes found at Lhoong in Aceh Besar Saturday, June 14.
Separatists
Saturday shot dead a civil servant at Kayee Lheu in Aceh Besar, police
told the state Antara news agency.
The
55-year-old victim was riding a motorcycle to work when a gunman shot
him, police said.
The
armed forces on May 19 launched an offensive aimed at “crushing”
GAM separatists and imposing a six-month martial law in the province.
Some
40,000 troops and police are involved in the operation to crush about
5,000 GAM rebels who have been fighting for independence since 1976.
Refugees
Stream Out
Meanwhile,
troops moved thousands of villagers from their homes in Juli during the
attack on the suspected separatist base there and took them to another
village east of Bireun where tents had been prepared for them.
Burhanuddin,
a social services spokesman in Aceh, told Reuters that 16,250 refugees
had fled to the town of Bireun over the past three days, up from some
12,000 Saturday.
The
camp, a football stadium, could only take up to 5,000 refugees, as
people were short of food and water and beset with sanitation woes, the
official Antara news agency said.
Safe
Passage
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Tanks
patrol Aceh where the military has launched an all-out assault to
crush the rebels
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Meanwhile,
a U.S. freelance journalist believed to be with separatists in Aceh has
demanded safe passage out of the country before agreeing to leave the
jungles, the military said Sunday.
The
head of the military operation in Aceh, Brigadier General Bambang
Darmono had given William Nessen, a U.S. national, until 6:00 pm (1100
GMT) Saturday to report to security authorities.
"He
contacted the commander (Darmono) on his private mobile telephone around
8:00 pm last night, initially claiming to be a reporter working for the Jakarta
Post, but the commander who had met Nessen before recognized his
voice," Aceh military Spokesman Achmad Yani Basuki said.
He
said that in the call, Nessen, a freelancer for U.S. and Australian
papers, made three conditions to leave the rebels.
"Nessen
said that he wants to come out and go to a military outpost but on the
three conditions that he not be interrogated, not be arrested and not be
shot," Basuki said.
Darmono,
according to the spokesman, assured Nessen he would not be shot at by
soldiers, but he must still be questioned about his stay with the
rebels.
The
spokesman of the GAM's military command, Sofyan Dawod questioned in a
statement the Indonesian government's decision not to allow independent
journalists to cover the conflict in Aceh.
"Why
do they not allow independent journalists to enter Aceh?" Dawod
said, accusing the Indonesian government of being paranoia and suspicion
towards foreigners.
Dawod
vowed that he and his men will fight to the last and said that the only
way to achieve peace in Aceh was to halt fighting and allow
self-determination in Aceh.
Indonesia
has said it will ban foreign tourists from entering Aceh and review the
presence of non-governmental organizations and foreign journalists for
their own safety.
The
martial law administrator in Aceh has rejected
earlier on June requests from about 10 overseas journalists to cover the
fighting there, a foreign ministry official said Tuesday.
Earlier
this month troops shot dead a German tourist and wounded his wife after
the couple did not respond to their calls in the dark of night.
A
team from Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights said in
Jakarta that children have been among the victims of extra-judicial
killings during the Friday offensive on Aceh.
The
commission on Friday said witnesses could not clearly identify who
committed the killings because the incident happened in early-morning
darkness. But the gunmen wore military-style uniforms and had rifles, it
said.
Indonesia's
police chief on Friday said his officers will work with the martial law
authorities in Aceh to further probe a Komnas HAM report that a mass grave
has been found in Aceh.
"This
information needs to be followed up," General Da'i Bachtiar said,
as quoted by the Detikcom online news service.
It
said it also planned to further investigate the report, received from
its representatives in Aceh, that dozens of people are buried in Nisam
sub-district near Bireuen.
Jakarta
has ordered the military to speed up the operation to
"minimize" civilian casualties.
