Trial in Aceh to start in late January: Hasballah
Trial in Aceh to start in late January: Hasballah
JAKARTA (JP): Eighteen military personnel and two civilians
will be tried before a joint military-civilian panel of six
judges later this month for the alleged murders of 65 people in
West Aceh in July.
State Minister of Human Rights Affairs Hasballah M. Saad did
not give an exact date for the trial, but confirmed that it would
be held in Sabang at the end of the month.
The ranks and names of suspects were not revealed but Military
Police chief Maj. Gen. Djasri Marin said last month the most
senior among them was a lieutenant colonel.
Troops allegedly shot dead Islamic boarding school teacher
Tengku Bantaqiah, his wife, his students and dozens of farmers in
an antirebel raid in the remote Beutong area, some 100 kilometers
south of Lhokseumawe on July 23.
Local military officers maintain Bantaqiah and his students,
believed to be allies of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were
killed in an exchange of fire.
Witnesses and a government-sanctioned inquiry said, however,
that they were executed by troops.
The Beutong shooting is among five human rights cases in Aceh
which the inquiry is focusing on in its investigations of alleged
abuses in the restive province.
The trial will be a test case as it will be the first to be
held under a joint interconnected military-civilian tribunal.
The resource-rich province has been wracked by clashes between
troops and rebels, which has heightened in the past few months.
Meanwhile in Aceh, a group of armed men opened fire on the
Banda Aceh Police station in the provincial capital early on
Thursday.
No fatalities or injuries were reported.
Aceh Police spokesman Lt. Col. Sayed Husaini described the
incident as a drive-by-shooting as the men were driving a Kijang
van and a motorbike as they fired AK-47 semi-automatic rifles.
"The group opened fire at about 4:50 a.m., but they only hit
the wall ... The guards were probably asleep when the incident
occurred," Sayed said.
Separately, Lt. Heri Sudrajat, a company commander of the
Police Mobile Bridgade unit was killed during a rebel attack on
Thursday in Cot Ijue of Peusangan district in Bireun.
North Aceh Police chief Lt. Col. Syafei Aksal added that
several officers were injured in the 15-minute gunfight.
(50/edt/byg/rms)