THE SHOOTING OF TWO WOMEN AND THEIR INFANT CHILDREN IN EAST ACHEH

November 25, 2003 – (Achehnese Community of Australia – ACA) We have received information from two persons in Medan, North Sumatra, relative to the victims, on a shooting of the two women, who are sisters, and their children, in Idi Rayeuk District, East Acheh regency. According to these informants, who passed this report to us through a human rights volunteer, these women had just emerged from the village of Seuneubok Kandang, Idi Rayeuk District after visiting their relatives on the Ied Holiday occasion when the TNI troops opened fire on them.

* Halimah Manaf, 35, was hit in ther head, and still in critical condition;
* Her son, Edi Yusni, 2, was hit in his stomach and died instantly;
* Maryani Manaf, 32, was also hit in the head and still in critical condition;
* Her daughter 7 months old was seriously injured and still in critical condition.

They are from Padang Kasab village, Idi Rayeuk District, East Acheh Regency. They are now being treated in the military hospital in Langsa, but the TNI have blocked journalists and the villagers from visiting them.

Asked if they knew exactly who shot the women and their children, the informant said, "We will stand witness to this any time international independent investigators can come to Acheh. The killers were the TNI."

"Did a fighting take place in the area?" I asked the informant.

He said, "At about ten o'clock that morning the TNI troops were dropped to this area probably to watch a return of GAM members to their villages on the first day of the Ied Holiday after Ramadhan." A short armed fight took place, he said, which killed two TNI soldiers and critically injured three or so others.

As usual, other informant added, the TNI sent down reinforcement force of about two hundred soldiers and searched the whole area. They forced the villagers to line up and tortured them to give information about the whereabouts of GAM guerillas. As nobody volunteered to give the information, they opened fire rampantly in all directions. It was at that time the two women with their infant children appeared at the spot.

Asked where the informants were when the TNI shot the women, the first informant said they had been hiding in the bush since the TNI soldiers began their patrol in the village of Seuneubok Kandang two hours earlier. "From our hiding we could clearly see the incident. Then we managed to leave the area for Langsa and then for Medan."

They said only the next day they heard that the women were shot by GAM. "It's a lie that the TNI have torturously forced the villagers to tell." The informants finished their information.

ACHEHNESE COMMUNITY OF AUSTRALIA
(A. C. A)
Postal Address: P. Box 1042, Dee Why, Sydney NSW 2099