`Witnesses report three mass graves'<\/p>\n
Agence France-Presse, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Witnesses have told Indonesian national human rights
\ninvestigators about three separate mass graves in Indonesia's
\nAceh province, an investigator said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\"We have several reports from eyewitnesses who said they saw
\nseveral graves that aren't normal,\" M.M. Billah told AFP in
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
Billah had led a team from the Indonesian National Commission
\non Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to the province to follow up a
\nreport from its field representatives.<\/p>\n
Troops are in their second month of an all-out offensive
\nagainst separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM). Billah
\nsaid the graves were in the Bireuen-North Aceh area, the scene of
\nintense activity during the operation.<\/p>\n
About seven or eight bodies are located in a former reservoir,
\nhe said, citing eyewitness reports.<\/p>\n
\"They saw for themselves there are bodies there,\" he said.<\/p>\n
At another location about eight corpses are believed to be
\ninside a well, Billah said.<\/p>\n
The third site is in a forest where people collecting wood
\nspotted bodies but were too afraid to collect them, he said after
\ninterviewing witnesses in the area.<\/p>\n
Komnas HAM says it does not know who carried out the killings
\nor when. Billah said his team hopes to visit the grave sites next
\nweek.<\/p>\n
Billah did not want to specify the exact location \"because we
\nare afraid they will be opened like the ones in Central Aceh.\"<\/p>\n
The Indonesian military was quoted on three separate occasions
\nlast week as saying soldiers were examining three other mass
\ngraves in Central, West and South Aceh.<\/p>\n
They blamed GAM for the killings, a charge the rebels denied.<\/p>\n
A newspaper photograph on Saturday showed soldiers helping to
\nexcavate the Central Aceh grave.<\/p>\n
Billah said graves should only be excavated by police
\naccompanied by experts.<\/p>\n
Lt. Col. Yani Basuki, spokesman for the Aceh military
\noperation, was quoted in Monday's Jakarta Post as saying the
\nmilitary did not initiate the excavations. Soldiers were simply
\nhelping villagers with the work, he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/witnesses-report-three-mass-graves-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}