INDOENSIA: A GERMAN TOURIST WOUNDED BY INDONESIAN TROOPS IN ACEH PROVINCE IN A SHOOTING THAT KILLED HER HUSBAND SAID THE INCIDENT WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING
Record ID:
647939
INDOENSIA: A GERMAN TOURIST WOUNDED BY INDONESIAN TROOPS IN ACEH PROVINCE IN A SHOOTING THAT KILLED HER HUSBAND SAID THE INCIDENT WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING
- Title: INDOENSIA: A GERMAN TOURIST WOUNDED BY INDONESIAN TROOPS IN ACEH PROVINCE IN A SHOOTING THAT KILLED HER HUSBAND SAID THE INCIDENT WAS A MISUNDERSTANDING
- Date: 6th June 2003
- Summary: (W2)BANDA ACEH, ACEH, INDONESIA (JUNE 6, 2003) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV PLANE ON TARMAC 0.03 2. LV COLONEL BRUNO HASENPUSCH, DEFENSE ATTACHE AT THE GERMAN EMBASSY IN JAKARTA, WALKING WITH INDONESIAN OFFICIALS 0.13 3. SLV/MCU/SV HASENPUSCH AND OFFICIALS WALK INTO TERMINAL BUILDING (4 SHOTS) 0.34 4. MCU (Bahasa Indonesia) HASENPUSCH SAYING: " We came here to check the facts about the shooting of the two Germans on the ground. We need to get clear information about exactly what happened. I can assure you both of them were genuine tourists." 1.40 5. LV AMBULANCE DRIVING TOWARD PLANE 2.14 6. SLV ELIZABETH MARGERT ON STRETCHER BEING MOVED FROM AMBULANCE TO PLANE 2.46 7. SLV BICYCLES BEING LOADED ONTO PLANE 2.52 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 21st June 2003 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA9TIDF4ZNA8N0UNDAX8SMQ535Y
- Story Text: A German tourist wounded by Indonesian troops in Aceh
province in a shooting that killed her husband said the
incident was a misunderstanding, adding they should not have
been there, the military said.
Elizabeth Margert, 49, and the body of her husband,
Luther Hendrik Albert, 54, were flown from Banda Aceh to
Jakarta on Friday (June 6).
The pair -- who had been cycling through war-torn Aceh --
were shot on Wednesday (June 4) night on the province's
western coast when they did not identify themselves to a night
patrol.
One official said they were foolhardy for visiting the
area in the middle of a major military offensive to crush
rebels that has killed more than 100 Indonesians in three
weeks.
Aceh military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus Komarno
said Margert confirmed hearing troops shout and fire three
warning shots, but she did not know these were directed at
them. In a letter acknowledging the incident was a mistake,
she said the pair had planned to sleep on a nearby beach,
Komarno said.
"In her letter, she admitted there was a misunderstanding
between them and the soldiers," Komarno said.
He said Margert was in "good condition", having spent the
night at a military hospital in Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh.
She was shot in the knee while her husband was hit in the jaw.
Komarno said police planned to further question her.
Colonel Bruno Hasenpusch, defense attache at the German
Embassy in Jakarta, said he was investigating the incident but
that he could confirm the two were genuine tourists.
"We came here to check the facts about the shooting of the
two Germans on the ground. We need to get clear information
about exactly what happened. I can assure you both of them
were genuine tourists," he said at the Banda Aceh airport.
Kompas newspaper quoted Margert as telling a senior
military commander that after hearing two shots there was no
time to say anything.
The shooting took place about 170 km (105 miles) south of
Banda Aceh at the village of Lhong Gayo after a villager
alerted troops to suspicious activity behind his house.
The Germans had been in Aceh since May 16, officials said.
Another military spokesman in Aceh, Colonel Ditya
Sudarsono, said the couple were asking for trouble.
While Aceh boasts great scenery, it has rarely been on the
tourist map because of the 27-year fight for independence by
rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
More than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been
killed in oil- and gas-rich Aceh since 1976. Indonesia's
military denies committing systematic rights abuses in Aceh.
In recent years, several foreign nationals have been
killed in some of Indonesia's hotspots.
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