TNI chief ordered to probe 'rights abuses in Aceh'

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)