13 people named suspects in Aceh massacre: Djasri

JAKARTA (JP): Military police chief Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin said here on Wednesday that 11 military personnel and two civilians had been declared suspects in the killing of at least 65 people, including Islamic boarding school teacher Tengku Bantaqiah, in the troubled province of Aceh in July.

Djasri did not reveal the names of the suspects, but said the most senior among them was a lieutenant colonel.

Troops allegedly shot dead Bantaqiah, his wife, his students and a number of farmers in an antirebel raid in the remote Beutong area of West Aceh, some 100 kilometers south of the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe, on July 23.

Local military officers maintain that Bantaqiah and his students, who it is believed to be supporters of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were killed in an exchange of fire.

Witnesses and a government-sanctioned inquiry said, however, that the victims were executed by troops.

The shooting in Beutong is among five alleged human rights cases in Aceh which the inquiry is focusing on in its investigations of alleged abuses in the restive province.

Djasri was quoted by Antara as saying that the suspects would be tried in a joint tribunal.

Attorney General Marzuki Darusman said in late November that the tribunal would be presided over by military and civilian judges.

In a separate development, five Acehnese students and a local human rights activist on Wednesday afternoon accused the military of detaining and torturing them in Bakongan district, South Aceh, in November.

They told journalists here that while assisting refugees in setting up an aid post for refugees in the area on Nov. 18, they were grabbed and later taken to a makeshift military post.

"We were accused of being GAM supporters and then interrogated at gunpoint, hit with rifle butts and detained there for more than six hours," one of the students, Ahmad Fadli, 21, a law student of Banda Aceh's Syiah Kuala University, said.

Calm

Meanwhile from Banda Aceh, it was reported that the situation was generally calm in the province on the eve of the Ramadhan fasting month, which begins on Thursday.

Local community leaders and authorities made calls for all Acehnese as well as members of the military, the police and members of GAM to stop the violence and respect the holy month.

"It is time to put aside all differences and let the people perform their fasting peacefully," said Muslim Ibrahim, chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) in Aceh.

The same calls for self-restraint were made separately by Teuku Umar Military Commander Col. Syarifuddin Tippe, Aceh Police chief Brig. Gen. Bachrumsyah, Lilawangsa Military chief Col. Syafnil Armen and Governor Syamsuddin Mahmud.

The most evident commotion in the provincial capital was in the markets as residents hurriedly did last minute shopping to prepare basic necessities for the fasting month, which is usually signified by a festive atmosphere during the evening breaking of the fast.

However, tension was evident in Pidie after two civilians riding a motorbike on the main avenue of Blang Raya in Kayeee Jatoh village during the day were shot by an unidentified armed gang from inside a Kijang van.

One man, Zulfan Budiman, 25, died instantly. His companion, Muhammad Yusuf, 25, is missing.

Witnesses said Yusuf was hit by bullets and taken by the attackers in the van, which then headed toward the town of Sigli, located 18 kilometers east of the village.

Meanwhile, the body of an unidentified middle-aged man was found with his throat slit and dumped beside a bridge in Sigli.

The man was wearing shorts and a jacket. The body, which had no signs of decomposition, was taken to Sigli General Hospital for further examination.

In Bugeng village, East Aceh, three people were arrested by military officers in a daylight raid for allegedly being involved in the death of a police officer there on Tuesday.

Three truck loads of soldiers surrounded the village. They reportedly took three men from their houses.

On Tuesday, an unidentified man attacked and stabbed a soldier named Bayu to death at a market in Peureulak subdistrict. (byg/50/har/edt)