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Indonesian Police Report New Mass Killing in Aceh
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Aug 21 (News Agencies) -Indonesian police reported another mass killing in the turbulent province of Aceh on Tuesday, making it the second such announcement this month.
The bodies of nine people who were abducted late Saturday were found buried at Langsa in East Aceh on Monday, said district police chief Commissioner Gaguk Sumartono.
Sumartono said 20-armed members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had abducted the nine people. The local GAM spokesman, Ishak Daud, accused the military of having kidnapped the victims during one of their sweeps.
The coordinator of the East Aceh Human Rights organization, Muhammad Yusuf Puteh, said the abductors were in camouflage dress.
The site of the grave is near where 31 plantation workers were massacred on August 9th. The military and GAM have both blamed each other for that slaughter.
The GAM has been fighting for an Islamic state in Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra since the mid-1970s. More than 1,200 people have been killed this year alone, most of them after military authorities in April launched a new offensive.
New president Megawati Sukarnoputri, who was sworn in July 23rd, has promised a fresh approach relying more on dialogue. A delegation of cabinet ministers and security chiefs is due to arrive in the province Wednesday to assess the situation.
On Tuesday, top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, among those who will visit Aceh, raised the possibility of fresh peace talks with GAM members, but said certain "rules of the game" must be laid down.
"There will be no spying, no gathering of information about the activities of either the TNI [the Indonesian military] or the government, and no misuse of protection that is accorded them [GAM negotiators]," Yudhoyono was quoted by Antara news agency as saying.
He reiterated that the government would release six negotiators detained in July and August as long as "they were not implicated in any other charges".
The six were held following the breakdown of peace talks between the two camps in Geneva in June.
Yudhoyono's spokesman said the security minister flew to the North Sumatra provincial capital of Medan Tuesday and would fly to Banda Aceh early Wednesday.
In other reported violence, an Aceh military spokesman, Major Dimyati (who uses only one name), said two suspected GAM members were shot dead at Geulumpang Tiga in the Pidie district on Monday evening. A local GAM spokesman, Abu Razak, said they were farmers killed during a military sweep.
In addition, a homemade landmine blew up at Syamtalira Aron in North Aceh on Monday, killing one teenager and wounding another after their motorcycle hit it, residents said.
Police said they arrested 178 activists from Aceh during a raid on an isolated training camp in the neighboring province of North Sumatra, which left four dead.
National police spokesman Inspector General Didi Widayadi said firearms, ammunition, grenades and homemade bombs, were confiscated at the camp at Pulaukampai, a coastal marshy area close to the border with Aceh.
He said four people were shot dead for resisting arrest. The camp was used to train GAM members and supporters in combat skills, the spokesman said.
North Sumatra's chief detective, Iskandar Hasan, was quoted by Media Indonesia as saying that after questioning, police freed 173 people because they had not engaged in criminal activities. Five with criminal records in Aceh were detained.
Meanwhile, the New York-based international rights group, Human Rights Watch (HRW), slammed the Indonesian government Monday for having "failed utterly" to protect civilians, accusing both the government and the activists in Aceh of committing human rights abuses and urging both parties to protect civilians.
HRW also called on Megawati's government to let local human rights groups perform fact-finding investigations "without intimidation," according to a statement.
"There is no question that both sides have been responsible for unlawful killings, as well as a wide range of other abuses," said Sidney Jones, HRW's Asia director. "But the Indonesian government has a particular responsibility to ensure that those who are supposed to uphold the law do not themselves become violators of it. In this, it has failed utterly."
The new 40-page report "Indonesia: the war in Aceh" also examines the Indonesian security forces' role in extra-judicial executions, "disappearances," torture and collective punishment.
"The President also needs to give her full support to full investigations into some of the most serious killings in Aceh," Jones adds, referring to incidents including the massacre in Central Aceh in June, in which both sides have been implicated, and the recent mass killings.
She also notes the murder of three aid workers outside Lhokseumawe last December, and the killing of human rights activist Suprin Sulaiman and two others after leaving a police station in South Aceh in March.
Underlining the increased difficulty in the last six months of organizations in performing field investigations, Jones said, "Rights monitors are squeezed by both sides.
"If they report on military or police abuses, they face criminal defamation charges. If they report on rebel abuses, they get warnings and threats."
HRW also accused Megawati of following in the footsteps of her dismissed predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid, in curbing freedom of expression.
"We're particularly concerned that the government seems to be making increased use of the laws Suharto used to use against his critics," Jones said.
Megawati is due to make an official working visit to Washington on September 19th to meet U.S. President George W. Bush.
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