Commision to probe rights violations in Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): The National Commission on Human Rights is to send a second fact-finding team to Aceh to investigate alleged human rights violations in the westernmost province.

Baharuddin Lopa, the commission's secretary-general, said he would lead the team himself and would depart within the next four days.

"We will make a thorough and more accurate investigation (than our previous one)," he said after attending the inauguration of Nurcholish Madjid as a professor at the Syarif Hidayatullah Islamic Teachers Institute here yesterday.

The rights body recently sent a team to Aceh but many people, especially local and religious leaders, were dissatisfied with it because its investigation was far from comprehensive.

The team started the investigation after receiving reports that 39,000 people had died during military operations in the province over the past decade.

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Soegiri, a member of the rights body, said that despite the planned troop withdrawal from the province, the team would still go ahead with the investigation because rights issues in Aceh were linked to the transmigration program and separatist rebel movement.

Minister of Defense and Security Affairs/Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto, in a visit to Aceh last week, ordered the withdrawal of all soldiers deployed in military operations within a month.

Soegiri said the rights body was also planning to carry out similar investigations in East Timor and Irian Jaya as part of its campaign to make a recommendation to the government on a comprehensive solution to human rights violations in those two provinces.

"The sending of fact-finding teams to Irian Jaya and East Timor is still being arranged. Tomorrow (today) we will assemble to discuss what we should do in our investigations in the three provinces," said Soegiri.

Exaggerate

Meanwhile, two Aceh community leaders remarked that the security situation in the province would likely improve with the withdrawal of troops.

Ibrahim Husin, chairman of the Aceh chapter of the Indonesian Ulemas Council, and Chairman of the Coordinating Board of Aceh Women Organizations Syarifah Hanoum, said in Banda Aceh yesterday that people should welcome the Armed Forces (ABRI) decision.

Hanoum said the disturbance issues in the province had been much exaggerated since 1989 as a guise to deploy an excessive number of combat troops there.

"It is irrational and quite an exaggeration that ABRI sent 4,000 elite troops to crush 40 rebels. It has stayed here for 10 years only to handle 40 rebels," she said.

She said that despite the hype about the existence of a separatist movement in the province, the majority of the people had little desire to separate from Indonesia.

She added that history shows it was the Acehnese who fought bitterly for Indonesia's independence and maintained a strong loyalty to the republic.

Hanoum said she could not accept the recent apology made by Wiranto for rights violations committed by troops in the province.

"Those involved in torture and rapes should be court martialled. The houses which were burned should be rebuilt and all children and wives whose parents and husbands were killed should receive support," she asserted.

The recently formed National Front also hailed the Armed Forces' lifting of Aceh's status as a military operations zone since it had only caused locals suffering and tarnished the country's image.

"It is also quite encouraging that ABRI is pulling out combat troops from East Timor and Irian Jaya," the front said in a political statement signed by its chairman, A. Kemal Idris. (rms)