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| Southeast Asia |
| Another attack against foreigners in Aceh |
| 2009-11-23 |
| GUNMEN fired on the home of two US academics in the Indonesian province of Aceh today, the latest in a string of attacks directed against foreigners. ,No one was injured in the attack on the home of Michelle Ahmad and Sarah Willis in the provincial capital Banda Aceh at 5.45am local time, police said. "I heard about six gunshots," said Ms Ahmad, who is understood to be teaching English to local students through a fellowship program with an Acehnese university. "We woke up and sprawled on the floor. A few minutes later, I called another friend... and we called the police." Police intelligence chief Bambang Soetjahjo said the motive for the attack was unknown. Nope, nope, not a clue why anyone would shoot at infidels, nope, nope ... He said it was not clear if it was connected to a recent spate of shootings targeting Westerners in the province, a deeply Islamic part of Indonesia that is recovering from a bitter separatist war. "We don't know the motive and who did it and if it's connected to previous incidents," Mr Soetjahjo said. Police said two shots hit the house's walls and one hit the roof. The attack comes less than a week after motorcycle-riding gunmen fired on the home of the European Union's local representative, a British national, in the province. The representative of the German branch of the Red Cross was badly wounded in a shooting attack earlier this month, forcing the medical relief agency to briefly suspend its operations in Aceh. No one has claimed responsibility for the shootings. Police have said the attacks are aimed at creating a climate of fear among foreign workers in the province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Aceh has experienced sporadic low-level violence, including armed robberies, kidnappings and politically motivated grenade and gun attacks, despite the 2005 end of a three-decade separatist war that claimed around 15,000 lives. The staunchly Islamic province is home to a large but steadily declining number of international organisations, which arrived to help after the 2004 Asian tsunami killed 168,000 people in Aceh. Thanks for the help Kuffr, now piss off. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #4 time for another tsunami |
| Posted by: chris 2009-11-23 20:45 |
| #3 Well, in Aceh, a smart NGO is a gone NGO. They're on their own. I just canceled my anthropological vacation there at Christmas, heh. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2009-11-23 19:23 |
| #2 Jim, I wouldn't do that even for a gazzilion Zimbo bucks. |
| Posted by: rhodesiafever 2009-11-23 18:14 |
| #1 You shoot at MY house and you're gonna leak like Wiley Coyote. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2009-11-23 16:49 |