'Rights abuses in Aceh may lead to UN intervention'

'Rights abuses in Aceh may lead to UN intervention'

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) warned the
government on Friday that intervention by the United Nations (UN)
was imminent if it failed to put an end to the gross human rights
violations in strife-torn Aceh.

Chairman of the commission's ad hoc team for Aceh M.M. Billah
said the possibility of the UN sending an investigating team to
probe human rights violations in Aceh was there if the warring
parties continued to breach humanitarian law upheld by the Geneva
Convention and the human rights law which has been in force since
2000.

"The likelihood will be greater if things do not improve in
Aceh," Billah told a press conference here.

Billah said the UN presence in Aceh would be among
recommendations proposed by the human rights watchdog to the
government in the next assessment of the third month of the
military offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

When asked if the proposal for UN intervention could
materialize, given the fact that international community had
earlier said that Aceh was Indonesia's internal problem, he said:
"No, you must recall that the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and
the U.S. Secretary of State Collin Powell expressed regret that
the conflicting sides had resorted to violence,"

The international community deplored the failure of both the
Indonesian government and GAM to resume peace talks that later
prompted Jakarta to impose martial law in Aceh on May 19.

The warning by Komnas HAM came after it completed a five-day
mission in the westernmost province. It concluded that human
rights violations had decreased compared to the first month of
the military operation, but remained intolerable.

The commission said that murder, sexual harassment, rape and
forced displacement and abduction remained rampant in Aceh. The
rights commissioners interviewed 102 witnesses in connection with
the cases.

The rights watchdog said the martial law administration had
failed to bring security back to Aceh, which was one of the
objectives of the integrated operation in the province.

"Many of the refugees do not have the courage to return to
their home villages, as there is no guarantee that they could
lead a normal life," he said, adding that many deserted homes of
the refugees had been looted.

He also said reports of over 230 Acehnese who were seeking
refuge in Malaysia was proof of the government's failure to
maintain security in the resource-rich province.

A Malaysian official said on Friday 120 of the Acehnese had
agreed to go home.

The administration has also failed to protect public
facilities, as evident in the arson attack on over 500 schools,
depriving tens of thousands of students of proper education,
Billah said.

"We also found school buildings which were used as military
barracks," he added.

The outspoken member of the rights body said the attack and
occupation of school buildings by either warring party was an
abject violation of the Geneva Convention, which stipulates that
non-military objects should not become targets of a war.

The first three months of the military operation claimed the
lives of 49 military personnel and police, 198 civilians and some
600 rebels.

Religious leaders and politicians have called on the
government to stop the war in Aceh in view of the gross human
rights violations committed by the conflicting sides.

Aware of the fact that there would not be a quick end to
conflict between the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the Aceh
rebels, Komnas HAM is now training local youths to work as
volunteers who will monitor human rights violations.

"Currently, we already have two offices in Bireuen and
Lhokseumawe. In the next two or three months, I believe that each
regency will have a monitoring team," Billah said, adding that a
team would consist of four members.