11 soldiers arrested for murder

JAKARTA (JP): The Armed Forces said on Monday that it arrested 11 soldiers for torturing to death four alleged separatist rebels in Aceh on Saturday, while condemnation of the brutality came strong and fast.

Lilawangsa Military Commander Col. Johnny Wahab told The Jakarta Post from the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe that the local military police were still questioning 19 other troops over their alleged involvement in the deaths and in the torture of 21 other civilians.

"These (troops) allowed their emotions to run free... they committed an evil and savage act," Johnny said, admitting the latest incident would further tarnish the image of the Armed Forces (ABRI).

Johnny said the 25 victims were among 40 people detained by police and troops in the Wibawa Operation's raid on alleged separatist targets in the village of Kandang, some two kilometers south of Lhokseumawe, in an attempt to capture Acehnese separatist leader Ahmad Kandang on Saturday.

"The 21 other (victims) suffered injuries, including two who are still in comas. They were beaten with bare hands, shoes and other objects," Johnny said.

Earlier reports said that the troops tortured the Acehnese, who were being detained in the building of the local chapter of the Indonesian Youth Committee, when the military police who were guarding the detainees left for their evening prayers.

Johnny said the troops allegedly involved in the torture were from Battalion 111, Battalion 113 Jayasakti, the Guided Missile Detachment and the Lilawangsa Military Command.

Local residents and human rights activists said that most of the human rights violations which occurred during a decade-long military operation to quash the separatist movement in the province took place in North Aceh, East Aceh and the Pidie regencies, which all fell under the supervision of the Lilawangsa Military Command.

Prior to Saturday's incident, military raids on alleged separatist targets in North Aceh on Jan. 3 claimed at least 11 lives, with 32 more people being injured.

The military has said that Ahmad was hiding in the village of Kandang under the protection of the villagers.

The military accused Ahmad, who reportedly managed to flee the village on Saturday, of being behind the killing of seven off- duty soldiers in Lhok Nibung and the kidnapping of two marines in the North Aceh district of Muara Dua last month.

Meanwhile, Munir, from the independent Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence, condemned the incident on Monday saying that it would only open old wounds for the Acehnese.

"The increasing number of civilians who have been killed in the last 10 days shows that the (Wibawa) operation is not a solution to the Aceh question."

"The operation only causes new problems for the people, opens old wounds and revives the potential for the kind of state- sanctioned violence which overwhelmed Aceh during the military operations," Munir stated.

Munir reiterated that the Wibawa Operation must be halted to avoid further violence in the province.

"ABRI must find more democratic steps to solve the existing problems in Aceh," he said.

Human rights activists have said that the current outbreak of violence in the province was due to past human rights violations which remain unresolved.

The activists have demanded that the alleged perpetrators of human rights violations be put on trial.

ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto has so far only expressed his apologies for military atrocities in the province, saying that they had "exceeded acceptable norms".

"ABRI's current violence against the Acehnese have made people angry... ABRI Commander Gen. Wiranto's claim that the killing of the seven soldiers was a brutal and gross violation of human rights was an exaggeration; that was nothing compared to the military atrocities committed in the past nine years in Aceh," Ruslan, a member of Student Solidarity for Aceh, said on Monday.

Members of the National Commission on Human Rights, who just returned from the province on Saturday, said that the military operations killed at least 781 people and caused thousands more to suffer.

Munir also said on Monday that the Lhok Nibung incident might have been fabricated by ABRI to create unrest, which in turn would justify the military's strong-presence in the troubled province.

"It is strange that ABRI announced that seven off-duty soldiers were killed even though they had not been able to recover the bodies," Munir said, referring to ABRI spokesman Maj. Gen. Syamsul Ma'arif's announcement on Dec. 29.

The military said that patrols had so far recovered the bodies of six of the soldiers. (byg)