Six people including a former rebel peace negotiator were killed in the latest violence to hit the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, the military and residents said Monday.
Pidie district military chief, Lieutenant Colonel Supartodi, said his men had shot dead a member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group during a routine ID check in the district on Sunday.
Supartodi said he had no idea that the victim -- Teungku Zulfani, a member of the Joint Committee on Security Modalities for last year's peace talks in Geneva -- was a rebel negotiator.
The government formed the committee before last year's peace talks with GAM in Geneva, which were organised by the Switzerland-based Henri Dunant Center.
After a series of failed truces, the government suspended the committee and disbanded another committee on humanitarian action.
GAM has been fighting since 1976 for an independent Islamic state in the resource-rich province at the northern tip of Sumatra.
Zulfani had tried to escape during the ID check, Supartodi said, adding that the rebel negotiator had carried a handgun.
One of GAM's field commanders, Teungku Amri bin Abdul Wahab, told AFP that Zulfani was unarmed and had been shot dead in the backyard of his house.
Five other deaths were reported over the weekend, including a policemen.
Unknown gunmen killed the policeman in the Darussalam area of Banda Aceh late Saturday, said district police chief Sayed Husainy.
Residents in the Banda Sakti district of North Aceh said Monday they found the body of a 35-year-old woman with gunshot wounds on Saturday.
In the Meurah Mulia district of North Aceh, local humanitarian activists said they had removed three decomposed bodies with gunshot wounds on Sunday afternoon.
Jakarta in April launched a military operation to rid the province of the rebels. More than 1,500 people have been killed this year, a local rights group says -- Indonesia, (AFP)
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