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| Southeast Asia |
| Military denies GAM' accusation of raid |
| 2003-02-24 |
| The military on Monday denied accusations by the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that troops had raided a rebel base in violation of a peace pact signed in December, AFP reported. "That is purely their (GAM's) claim. We are continuing to check the claim but I have just talked with the local subdistrict military commander who said there was no such raid in his area," an Aceh military spokesman, Major Eddi Fernandi, said. "Nope. Nope. Wudn't us. Never happened. Nope." Amri Abdul Wahab, a GAM representative on the Joint Security Committee (JSC) overseeing the truce, said that dozens of soldiers raided a GAM base at Linge in Central Aceh on Wednesday, killing one GAM member and injuring five others. "They should come out with more facts to back up their accusations," Eddy said, adding that if the attackers were in uniform, GAM should know which units they were from. "If they were wearing name tags, you should know their names, too. If they weren't, they were out of uniform, and our guys would never do that..." GAM said the incident had been reported to the JSC, which is supervising the implementation of the peace accord signed in Geneva on December 9, for them to investigate. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |