Agence France-Presse (AFP)
Date: 31 May, 2003

BANDA ACEH: Students in Aceh whose schools were burned down or destroyed during Jakarta's military offensive against separatist rebels were Saturday receiving 11,500 packages containing books, school bags, stationery and uniforms as part of a government aid programme.

"The 11,500 aid packages were sent to support the learning process of the poor students," Education Minister Malik Fajar was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying Friday. Fajar said his ministry had also sent 150 tents -- each big enough to house up to 60 students -- that would be used as makeshift classrooms.

Jakarta and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have blamed each other for arson attacks on classrooms, which education officials say have hit 450 schools and left 60,000 children with nowhere to study.

The minister said Jakarta would rebuild these schools and he expected the process to be completed in August.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) would send 300 aid packages for Acehnese students, an official with the agency's representative in Jakarta said Saturday.

"The school-in-a-box packages also include recreational kits for the students and they are expected to arrive within three weeks," the official told AFP.

UNICEF has also donated some 20.38 tons of emergency health kits to refugees in Aceh. Separately, troops on Saturday continued to hunt down GAM rebels in several rebel-dominated districts, including North Aceh.

"The armed forces continue to corner GAM in remote areas, which they have used as their headquarters," Aceh military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Yani Basuki told AFP from the town of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh.

Humanitarian workers evacuated Friday three bodies bearing gunshot wounds in the Lancok area of Bireuen district, a rescue worker said Saturday.

District police chief Laksa Widiyana said the three were GAM rebels who died in a skirmish with security forces on Friday.

In West Aceh, 23 rebels surrendered to authorities in the Tangan-tangan area on Friday, a military officer said.

Troops also arrested Abu Taha, a Muslim cleric in West Aceh's Krueng Batee area, the officer said. Taha, who was arrested along with four of his men, was a local GAM police commander, the officer claimed.

At least 92 GAM rebels have been killed since the start of the campaign, according to military figures.

Twelve soldiers and police and 15 civilians have been killed. The military blamed most of the civilian deaths on rebels.

The military, which has a record of serious rights abuses during past military operations in Aceh, has promised it would try to spare civilians this time.

It vehemently denies claims by some villagers that troops killed several civilians during the first week of the operation.

Aceh has been under martial law since May 19 after talks between GAM and the government to salvage a peace agreement broke down. At the same time, Jakarta launched an all-out offensive aimed at crushing GAM.

The martial law status will be in force for six months. Up to 40,000 police and soldiers are confronting an estimated 5,000 rebels from GAM, which has been fighting for an independent state since 1976.

Some 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the past 27 years.