Over 1,600 rights abuses in Aceh

Over 1,600 rights abuses in Aceh

BANDA ACEH, Aceh: A regional administration team has uncovered
more than 1,600 cases of human rights violations by the military
in the country's westernmost province of Aceh over the past
decade, Antara said on Monday.

Yusuf Ismail Pase, spokesman for the team set up by North Aceh
district administration, said 1,655 violations were committed
during nearly a decade for which the province was classified as a
Military Operation Zone (DOM), the news agency said.

Yusuf claimed that the most traumatic abuses, ranging from
theft to rape and torture, had occurred between 1989 and 1992.

Local non-governmental activists were included in the
investigative team, whose main purpose is to help the surviving
victims of abuse at the hands of the military or armed gangs. The
campaign of terror led to the deaths and disappearances of at
least 760 people.

Six hundred women were widowed, 10 raped, and 1,960 children
orphaned during the military operation, Yusuf said.

The operation also inflicted material losses of Rp 448.92
million rupiah (US$42, 000) on the local people, he said.

Furthermore, 210 houses were reportedly set ablaze, a further
60 badly damaged and 1.8 kilograms of gold were stolen, he added.

The team was set up to assist the local government
rehabilitate the surviving victims of the military operation and
their heirs, most of whom have been reduced to a displaced life
of poverty, Yusuf said.