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.