Activists call for world attention on Aceh violence

JAKARTA (JP): A leading human rights activist in Aceh called on the international community not to turn a blind eye to the violence in the troubled province.

"We call on the United Nations (UN) to put pressure on the Indonesian government to cease phase II of its genocidal practices being carried out in Aceh," Otto Syamsuddin Ishak said in his statement, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Otto said the statement on The Promotion and Protection of Human Rights was read before the 51st session of the UN subcommission in Geneva on Aug. 5.

Otto said the second phase of atrocities in Aceh started after the Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto halted a decade of brutal antirebel operations in the province last August.

"Since then a new regime of human rights violations has been established in Aceh," he said.

The military campaign from 1989 to 1998 against the separatist movement in Aceh has left more than 1,000 people dead while hundreds of others are still missing.

He said "the second genocidal phase" was marked in January by the torture of about 40 alleged supporters of the separatist Free Aceh Movement in the National Youth Committee (KNPI) building in the North Aceh capital of Lhokseumawe. This infliction of torture killed four people and 21 others were seriously injured.

The military relaunched antirebel operations in the province following the abductions of seven off-duty soldiers and two marines in East Aceh in December. The nine were later found dead.

Otto said that since then, hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands more have suffered from a systematic use of state violence.

Hundreds of buildings, including schools, have been set ablaze by unidentified groups of men across Aceh since May. At least 228 people, including soldiers and policemen, have also been killed.

Under mounting pressure to resolve the ongoing violence in Aceh, late last month, the government set up a team to investigate the past and present human rights abuses in Aceh. Included in the team are the Acehnese human rights campaigner Farida Haryani and the businesswoman Rosita S. Noer.

Otto, however, said the team "has no credibility in the eyes of the Acehnese".

"We therefore urge the UN subcommission on human rights to carry out a field investigation into human rights abuses in Aceh and deliver its report before the UN Commission in the year 2000," Otto said.

Resentment against Jakarta has been mounting in Aceh as the government of President B.J. Habibie has so far failed to bring to justice members of the security forces who have allegedly perpetrated human rights abuses in Aceh.

The London-based Amnesty International said earlier this month that "the government's failure to address human rights violations in the past has sent a message to the security forces that they can continue to kill without being held to account".

Meanwhile, intercity buses in Aceh resumed their activities on Monday following the end of a six-day strike from Aug. 14 to Aug. 20 to protest against the military atrocities in the province, Antara said.

The news agency said that a number of buses were seen at the main intercity bus station in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

Aceh came to a halt during the first strike on Aug. 4 and Aug. 5. (byg)