TNI chief ordered to probe 'rights abuses in Aceh'

JAKARTA (JP): President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Admiral Widodo A.S. on Monday to launch an investigation into alleged human rights abuses by military commandants in Aceh and to quickly withdraw all nonorganic troops from the troubled province in a bid to end prolonged violence there.

The President said he also had especially instructed Widodo to probe the killing of religious leader Tengku Bantaqiah and his followers in the Beutong Ateuh subdistrict of the West Aceh district of Meulaboh in July.

"I have asked the TNI commander to initiate a comprehensive inquiry into the chiefs of the Bukit Barisan Military Command in Aceh, and I have also requested him to interrogate the intelligence affairs assistant to the chief of Teuku Umar military command, which shot Teungku Bantaqiah," the President said in a media briefing at the State Guest House.

Bukit Barisan Military Command oversees Aceh, North Sumatra, Riau and West Sumatra. Aceh itself is divided into the Lilawangsa and Teuku Umar resort military commands.

A fact-finding commission on the incident, established by Aceh Governor Sjamsuddin Mahmud and chaired by Col. Syahril Bakri, concluded on Saturday there was no evidence that Bantaqiah had waged an armed resistance against the government and military.

The commission dismissed a statement by the chief of Teuku Umar Military Command, which also oversees West Aceh, who said that a military operation which killed Bantaqiah and his 51 followers in Beutong Ateuh was based on an intelligence report that Bantaqiah and his group were armed with 100 guns from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Bantaqiah, an Islamic boarding school leader, was a former political prisoner who was released by then president B.J. Habibie in March.

"This case will be legally processed. And we will not reduce ourselves to only catching the teri (small fish) but also the kakap (big fish)," Abdurrahman pledged on Monday.

Secret meeting

The President also disclosed a secret meting with GAM leaders on Sunday as part his plan to resolve Aceh's problems. Abdurrahman said the meeting, which went unnoticed by the press, was aimed at giving him knowledge about the group's movements and its purposes.

"The meeting was just an ordinary one. I did not use an official channel, but my own channel," Abdurrahman said.

It was the first meeting ever between a head of government and GAM leaders following separatist rebel movements in the western tip of the country in the 1970s.

Violence has been on the rise since the Indonesian Military lifted a decade of military operations to quell the rebel movement last year. Human rights abuses are believed to have occurred during the operations.

The President said on Monday he would not let Aceh separate from Indonesia, but he acknowledged severe human rights abuses in the province. Not only ordinary citizens, but ulemas have fallen victims to the human rights violations, according to Abdurrahman.

Meanwhile, another military personnel, Second Corp. Asli Caniago, was killed on Monday, while two other soldiers suffered from gunshot wounds during an ambush by an unidentified armed group while on a military convoy in Aceh Jeumpa regency.

Lilawangsa Military Command spokesman Second Lt. Edi Harianto said the attack took place when the troops were on their way to Bireun for a regular monthly ceremony.

"The convoy was attacked from behind in Juli village by the armed group, who emerged from a hill", Edi told Antara.

After the attack, the armed group fled, he said.

"We are now continuously conducting a search for the armed civilians in cooperation with the elite police force Brimob", he added.

The security officials blocked the road linking Banda Aceh and Medan and the road to Takengon in Central Aceh following the ambush. (prb/02)