Aid worker shot in Indonesia's Aceh, rebels blamed 23 Jun 2005 06:47:56 GMT Source: Reuters (Adds police, Hong Kong Red Cross comments)
By Dean Yates BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, June 23 (Reuters) - A woman aid worker was shot in the neck in Indonesia's Aceh overnight, prompting the United Nations and other agencies to halt some road travel in the tsunami-battered province, officials said on Thursday. Police blamed separatist rebels for the shooting and said they would step up protection for foreign workers in Aceh. The incident could heighten security concerns that inhibit vital reconstruction. Eva Yeung, 28, a relief delegate for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies from Hong Kong, was in a stable condition in a hospital in the North Sumatran city of Medan, Red Cross officials said. Virgil Grandfield, a spokesman for the federation in Aceh, said she had been flown to Medan by U.N. helicopter and was in a stable condition. "The bullet went into her neck and is still there," Grandfield said, adding that at least two shots were fired. Wilson Wong, deputy secretary general of the Hong Kong Red Cross, told Reuters: "She is conscious, she can speak. She is not bleeding too much." He said she would probably be flown to Singapore later on Thursday. Yeung was travelling in a single car north of the town of Lam No, 80 km (50 miles) south of the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Wednesday night when she was shot, Grandfield said. FIRST FOREIGNER Aceh police spokesman Djoko Turochman said: "The victim was shot from a distance of 100 metres and we suspect GAM. Clearly, we will increase security for foreigners who are working in Aceh so that there will be no repeat of such an incident." Indonesia and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels have been holding a series of peace talks in Helsinki to try to end a three-decade conflict, but clashes are still common. The shooting was the first involving a foreigner since the tsunami hit the province on the northern tip of Sumatra island on Dec. 26, leaving 168,000 dead or missing and more than 500,000 homeless. Michele Lipner, acting area security coordinator for the United Nations in Aceh, said road travel around Lam No, including travel from Banda Aceh, would be temporarily halted. "This has been done as a precautionary measure until we get more details of the incident," she told Reuters. Grandfield said the federation had suspended road travel from Banda Aceh all the way to the city of Meulaboh, 250 km (160 miles) to the south. He said he could not comment on why Yeung had been travelling at night. United Nations workers are forbidden from doing so. Her car had federation markings on it, he added. Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said that at the request of the Jakarta government, its convoys had been travelling with Indonesian military escorts. "This is where we operate, in an area where there are weekly gunbattles," Dillon said. Thousands of foreign aid workers have flooded into the province to help after the tsunami. A $5 billion, multi-year effort is now under way to rebuild damaged areas of Aceh. (Additional reporting by Tan Ee Lyn in Hong Kong and Jerry Norton and Dan Eaton in Jakarta) -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
