Team finds skeletons in 'killing field'

By Pandaya

PIDIE, Aceh (JP): A team from the National Commission on Human Rights discovered skeletons from an area adjacent to what locals call the "killing field", the first indication of atrocities committed by the military in Aceh over the past nine years.

The remains were recovered on Kuala Tari peninsula and in the yard of a mansion in Gleumpang Tiga subdistrict believed to have been used by the military as a "concentration camp" from 1990 until Aug. 18. this year.

Pidie, about three hours' drive east of the provincial capital Banda Aceh, suffered the heaviest casualties during military operations beginning in 1989 until the area's military operations status was lifted on Aug. 7, human rights activists say.

Most arbitrary arrests, rapes, forced disappearances and killings allegedly occurred after the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) launched its Red Net Operation in 1991 to suppress the activities of the separatist Free Aceh Movement, they note.

"The discovery (of the skeletal remains) has convinced us beyond doubt that reports on widespread military atrocities over the past nine years in Aceh are an undisputed fact," commission member Koesparmono Irsan told reporters.

Other commission activists taking part in the fact-finding mission were Sugiri, Baharuddiin Lopa and Salim Said. Local activists and residents used the occasion to showcase their claims on nine years of unchecked systematic rights abuses.

Mass graves

Koesparmono, a retired police general, said the discovery gave enough reason for the commission to believe reports on mass graves across Aceh, where about 2,000 people were believed to have been killed between 1989 and 1992.

On the peninsula, measuring about one kilometer long and 500 meters wide, villagers dug up the remains of two people buried side by side at a depth of less than one meter.

Police officers and a team of forensic experts in charge said the gender of the dead and estimated ages were yet to be determined.

Holes in one of the skulls suggest the victim was shot at point-blank range and the bullet exited from the back of the head.

An empty wallet, red underpants, a belt and a black blindfold were found with the skeletons and in plain sight to commission officials, local rights activists and thousands of curious locals streaming to the site under the scorching sun.

No tears were shed as locals believe the remains were those of people from other areas.

Villagers estimate about 80 bodies were buried at the site, mostly at the height of the Red Net Operation between 1991 and 1992. At the time the peninsula was declared a restricted area and a night curfew was enforced in the area.

"At that time, trucks carrying bodies to be buried on the peninsula or just dumped on the streets came and went at night while people were too scared to ask what happened," a resident said.

Haji Usman, a respected Moslem preacher who was once abducted and tortured, said the two bodies were found and buried there secretly by local fishermen in 1992.

"The bodies were found floating at the beach with their arms tied at their backs," he recalled. He claimed he was one of those who found and buried the bodies.

The digging up of the grounds of the unoccupied mansion, which locals call Rumoh Gedong (Mansion), unearthed only smaller, incomplete bits believed to be bone fragments left behind when soldiers allegedly removed human remains after the alleged atrocities were uncovered and sparked an international outcry.

Fire

Antara meanwhile reported last night that hundreds of angry residents set fire to the house only a few hours after the rights commission team left. The report could not be immediately confirmed.

The bones fragments were recovered in separate places on the two-hectare property which the military turned into a detention center.

Commission officials touring the mansion, where the electricity had been disconnected and the elevated main building divided into small chambers, were overwhelmed by 30 tearful men and women with hair-raising stories about what they saw, heard or experienced in the mansion.

A woman in her 20s said in a meeting with commission officials that she was held and tortured when she visited the mansion to see her husband, who she said was detained in the mansion without charges.

She said she was ordered to strip and was given electric shocks in her genitals.

Supiyah, 22, reported that she was looking for her father who had been picked up by soldiers a fortnight ago, and that the authorities had broken their promise to return him to his family on Aug. 18, the first day of Kopassus troop withdrawals.

Zubaidah Cut, a mother of six, said her husband was abducted by three Kopassus officers on the night of Aug. 8 and was taken to the Rumoh Gedong.

"A week later a Kopassus officer called our house but refused to let him come home for a while because our baby was dead," she said tearfully.

The fact-finding team will continue with its mission today and visit the industrial town of Lhok Seumawe.

The team was established in response to growing reports of human rights violations by the military against the people of Aceh.

Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto apologized for the atrocities earlier this month, and began withdrawing combat troops from the province this week.