Jakarta- A homemade bomb believed to be left over from the conflict in Indonesia's strife-torn Aceh province exploded after being found by local school children, killing one of them and injuring three others, local reports said Tuesday. The blast occurred Monday afternoon in the East Aceh town of Langsa, seriously wounding two students and slightly injuring a local farmer, the state-run Antara news agency reported.
The children apparently found the round-shaped bomb in a field and were playing with it when it exploded, Major General Supiadin, a local military commander, told Aceh's Serambi daily newspaper.
Jodi Heriyadi, spokesman of the Aceh's provincial police, was quoted as saying the incident was still under investigation. He said the wounded were being treated at a public hospital in Langsa town.
Aceh, an oil-and-gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra Island, was witness to a brutal 29-year war between the Indonesian army and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that killed as many as 20,000 people, mostly civilians.
The sides signed a peace agreement in August 2005, just months after the 2004 Asian Tsunami killed 177,000 people in Aceh alone.
The peace agreement has held together surprisingly well, with GAM disarming and forming a political movement and former rebel member Irwandi Yusuf becoming Aceh's first-ever directly election governor in December 2006.
However, three recently unexplained grenade attacks across the province have raised tensions and stoked fears that an unknown group is trying to sabotage the peace because former rebels are now in office.
Early Sunday, a grenade was hurled into the house of former GAM spokesman Sofyan Dawood in the town of Lhokseumawe, but caused no injuries. Grenades were also thrown at the house of the town's deputy major on April 23 and the next day at the headquarters of the elite police Mobile Brigade in the capital Banda Aceh.
