ABRI apology for Aceh atrocities 'not enough'

JAKARTA (JP): Rights activists greeted Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto's apology for years of atrocities committed by the military in Aceh, but said the gesture was not enough to heal the wounds of the people affected.

They urged ABRI and President B.J. Habibie in a discussion here yesterday to continue in the right direction by prosecuting those involved in the abductions, tortures, rapes and killings of Acehnese women and men since the start of military operations there in 1989.

Abdul Gani of the Human Rights Forum for Aceh and observer Hasbullah Saad said the rights violations committed in the westernmost province were worse than many reported in Bosnia's civil war.

"Perpetrators must be punished to ensure that no such offenses will ever occur again in Aceh or anywhere else in Indonesia," Abdul Gani said.

Hazbullah said: "An apology is not enough. The withdrawal of combat troops is not enough. Follow-up measures must be taken to cleanse (Indonesia's) international image."

Also speaking in the discussion were House of Representatives' fact-finding team for Aceh member Endang Saifullah, National Commission on Human Rights member Maj. Gen. (ret) Samsudin and Abdullah Nurdin, a witness of some of the tortures and killings.

The activists appealed to the government to:

* Provide economic and psychological compensation for crippled victims of torture, and widows and relatives of those killed by the military.

* Pay for the education of orphaned children up to high school.

* Free those detained and jailed for alleged involvement in the separatist Free Aceh Movement.

Endang Saifullah said the House team had concluded, after interviews with political prisoners and visits to Pidie, Aceh Timur and Aceh Barat where killings had reportedly taken place, that the deeply-rooted problem there arose from Acehnese feeling a sense of being the victims of "injustice".

He said the team failed to find in their interviews people who wanted to set up an independent Aceh state. Armed activities against the military had taken place rather because of the government's injustices.

The details of rights violations, Saifullah said, would be discussed by the National Commission on Human Rights before it sends another fact-finding team to Aceh.

In the past few weeks, mass media reports have estimated that as many as 1,600 people fell victim to ABRI's abusive military operations in the timber- and oil-rich province over the past nine years.

Abdullah Nurdin, from Aceh Timur regency, yesterday said that 26 of his family members had been killed. He and a brother were the only surviving members.

Meanwhile, Reuters reported from Kuala Lumpur yesterday that Denmark and Norway had offered asylum to eight of 22 Indonesian immigrants holed up in diplomatic compounds in the Malaysian capital for more than four months.

Diplomats said that one of the immigrants, who with seven others had climbed into the U.S. Embassy in April to avoid deportation, was set to leave Kuala Lumpur for Denmark today.

Others are expected to be resettled in coming weeks, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) hopes that eventually all 22 will be granted asylum, they said.

"Tomorrow, one is leaving for Denmark," a diplomat said. "Eight of 22 have been accepted, and we hope they will follow in weeks to come."

Fourteen of the 22 Indonesians drove a truck through the gates of the UNHCR compound in late March to claim asylum.

The immigrants are from Aceh, claiming they would be persecuted if repatriated. (aan)