Word: indonesian
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...long and bloody campaign in Aceh. That's because all sides want?even need?the conflict to continue, observed a senior Western diplomat in the capital. Everyone, that is, except the benighted province's populace, some 12,000 of whom have died in the 27-year struggle between Indonesian soldiers and GAM guerrillas, who are seeking independence from Jakarta's rule...
...villagers in the Peusangan area, death came at dawn. Indonesian soldiers swept in from all directions, announcing their arrival with bursts of semiautomatic gunfire. Most villagers cowered in their houses. But seven young men and boys were caught in the open. A 55-year-old woman who witnessed the carnage said she saw about 15 soldiers prodding the seven villagers into line. The soldiers, she said, shot four of the men from a distance of about five meters; the remaining three began to run and were mowed down by bullets...
...woman rushed to the spot, passing the soldiers on her way. They wore Indonesian flags around their heads like bandannas, she recalled, and they "seemed happy." Their bullet-shattered victims were almost unrecognizable. The woman held her face in her hands at the memory. "It was terrible," she moaned. "So much blood." Two of the dead, she said, were just schoolboys?Annas Nazir, 11, and Dedi Daud, 13. Her account of the massacre was echoed by a 49-year-old man who had watched from a hiding place among nearby palm trees. When I asked if he was related...
...being of civilians," foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa told reporters. I spoke to villagers outside Lhokseumawe who were convinced they would soon be moved to a camp next to the nearest military base, where they feared they would be used as human shields against GAM attacks or brutalized by Indonesian troops...
...care less?about the fear in Aceh. In the mass media, dangdut dancer Inul Daratista's gyrations, the 2004 elections and the improving economy all featured far ahead of news about Aceh until virtually the day the campaign began. At the outset, television viewers saw some dramatic footage from Indonesian reporters embedded with the t.n.i. showing both sides of the conflict. But two days into the campaign, Aceh's military commander Major General Endang Suwarya flatly told the embeds that they were barred from using GAM statements. "I want all news published to uphold the spirit of nationalism," he said...