Rights body says mass grave found in Aceh

Rights body says mass grave found in Aceh

Agencies, Banda Aceh

A mass grave has been found in Aceh province where Indonesian
troops are battling separatist rebels, a state human rights
investigator said Wednesday.

"That grave is confirmed, yes, but what happened, the number
of victims and the witnesses hasn't yet been (confirmed)," M.M.
Billah, of the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights,
told Agence France-Presse.

"We will carry out an investigation," Billah said, estimating
the grave contained dozens of bodies.

Billah said that according to a report he received from
commission representatives in Aceh, the grave is located in Nisam
sub-district close to the rebel stronghold of Bireuen where there
has been intense military activity.

Commission representatives in Aceh, who receive information
from a variety of sources, first learned of the grave about two
weeks ago, he said.

Acehnese have told reporters over the past week they have
heard rumors of a mass grave.

Billah said rights investigators have not yet visited the
scene but he hopes a team from his commission which is traveling
to Aceh next week from Jakarta will be able to investigate.

Separately, the Indonesian Red Cross said on Wednesday it had
taken 151 bodies to hospitals and morgues in Aceh since a fresh
military offensive against rebels began on May 19, adding all
victims had been wearing civilian clothes.

But Iyang Sukandar, secretary-general of the Indonesian Red
Cross, told Reuters this did not mean the dead were civilians.
The Red Cross has said it was not its job to determine the
identity of those killed in the offensive, now into its fourth
week.

"The latest figure that I received was on Saturday. It was 151
casualties," Sukandar said by telephone, adding more updated
figures were not available because of communications problems.

"Their identities were not clear, all of them wore civilian
clothing. But if I have to say that they were civilians, then I'm
not sure," Sukandar said.

He said the bodies were only those removed by the Red Cross,
and did not include those who were buried immediately by their
families, according to Muslim custom.

The twin reports heightened fears of a high casualty toll in
the operation, in which some 40,000 troops and police are
confronting an estimated 5,000 guerrillas.

Official military figures say 175 rebels had been killed as of
Wednesday, along with 24 soldiers and four policemen.

The military has put the civilian death toll at 18 civilians,
including a German tourist who was shot by troops apparently
after being mistaken for a guerrilla.

The two sides in the conflict blame each other for the bulk of
the civilian deaths.

Independent monitoring of the situation is increasingly
difficult.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian military in Aceh on Wednesday
pursued rebels after a bloody ambush which cost the lives of
seven soldiers.

"We are continuing our pursuit of the rebels," said Lt. Col.
Yani Basuki, spokesman for the military operation in Aceh.

Troops late Monday and Tuesday suffered their worst casualty
toll of the offensive when seven soldiers died and seven were
injured in an ambush at Matang Kumbang in Bireuen district. GAM,
meanwhile, lost five, including a female fighter, in the
fighting.