Rights body finds human rights violations in Aceh

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The National Commission on Human Rights' (Komnas HAM) ad hoc team for Aceh has found indications of gross human rights violations in Aceh, most of which were committed by military members.

According to the team's report to the Komnas HAM plenary meeting, a copy of which was made available to The Jakarta Post, indications include accusations of "attacks against unarmed civilians, including victims who were murdered, tortured, sexually abused or raped, or others who the court had not yet proved were rebels."

Other indications were widespread attacks, either committed by the Indonesia Military or the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), in the form of extrajudicial killings, torture, kidnapping, sexual abuse, rape, child abuse, arson and robbery.

"The attacks were systematic. They (the perpetrators) had political or ideological goals and used public and private budgets," the report said. The military operation in Aceh was financed by the state budget.

Komnas HAM's team also found that TNI or police personnel had collected levies from local residents. GAM also collected tax from the local people, which is known as Nanggroe tax.

"The attacks involved high ranking political and military authorities," the report said.

The military operation in Aceh was launched in mid-May 2003 after President Megawati Soekarnoputri imposed martial law on the province, where Acehnese rebels have been fighting for independence since 1976. Over 10,000 people have been killed since then, mostly civilians.

The ad hoc team found that there had been a series of attacks with a specific pattern -- First, the victim would be accused of being a GAM member or protecting a GAM member, or a member of his family would be accused. Then, the victim would be shot dead or kidnapped by two or more armed people. Those who were kidnapped were also murdered -- the report said.

"The ad hoc team had found strong indications of rights violations, humanitarian law violations, as well as abuses of power and authority since the imposition of martial law," the report said.

M.M. Billah, who led the team, refused to provide a summary of the team's report on Tuesday, saying that the Komnas HAM plenary meeting had not given its approval.

"I know that Komnas HAM always disseminates the reports of its ad hoc teams previously, but not this time," he said, adding that the team was only able to reveal its findings from monitoring during the first six months of martial law in the province.

Last year, the ad hoc team irked the military and the government after it announced that it had uncovered mass graves in Aceh and indicated the involvement of the military, which later exhumed the graves without approval from court.

The team, comprising more than 20 members, was tasked to monitor the implementation of martial law in Aceh from May 19 to Nov. 19 of last year.