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)