BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Nov 6, 2009 (AFP) - The Red Cross suspended its activities in the Indonesian province of Aceh for a day on Friday after one of its German workers was shot and wounded by gunmen on a motorbike.
The international organisation decided on the shutdown after Thursday's shooting of Ernhard Bauer, 50, on the outskirts of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, local Indonesian Red Cross chief Bustari Mansyur said.
Bauer, the representative for the Red Cross's German branch in the province on the northern tip of Sumatra, was shot in the stomach and arm by two men while riding in a car.
He was flown to Singapore for treatment but his condition was not known.
"We suspended the activities of the International Federation of the Red Cross and the Indonesian Red Cross in Aceh today," Masyur said.
"We are concerned about the shooting," he said, without giving further details.
Aceh police spokesman Farid Ahmad Saleh said no motive had yet been found for the shooting.
Aceh has experienced sporadic low-level violence, including armed robberies and politically-motivated grenade and gun attacks, despite the 2005 end of a three-decade separatist war that has claimed around 15,000 lives.
The deeply Islamic province is home to a large but steadily declining number of international organisations, who arrived to help in the wake of the 2004 Asian tsunami, which killed 168,000 people in Aceh.
str-ads/aub/jah
Copyright (c) 2009 Agence France Presse
Received by NewsEdge Insight: 11/06/2009 01:23:59
©AFP: The information provided in this product is for personal use only. None of it may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the express permission of Agence France-Presse.
