Team finds skeletons in 'killing field'

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.