Wiranto criticizes rights commission over Aceh probe

JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces Commander Gen. Wiranto lashed out at the National Commission on Human Rights yesterday for going public with its alleged number of victims of rights violations in Aceh without checking with the military first.

Gen. Wiranto, who is also the minister of defense and security, said he doubted whether all the figures announced by the commission were victims of military atrocities.

The figures were entirely based on skeletons and bones excavated from graves by the commission's fact-finding team, he told reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office.

Some of these skeletons could have been victims of the communist uprising in 1965, he said, adding: "Skeletons don't talk, do they?"

Commission secretary-general Baharudin Lopa, who led the fact- finding team to Aceh last week, announced Monday that it had compiled reports of at least 782 people killed during nine years of military operations against the local separatist movement between 1989 and this year.

Other findings listed by the commission include reports that:

* 368 people were tortured,

* 168 people are still missing,

* 3,000 women were widowed,

* between 15,000 and 20,000 children were orphaned.

Wiranto earlier this month personally apologized to the people of Aceh for the excesses of the military operations and ordered the withdrawal of combat troops from the province starting last week.

Yesterday, he criticized the rights commission's announcement as "not conducive" to the nation's development drive.

"The public needs accurate, objective and healthy information. Don't give them information that will only start a polemic," he said, adding: "This is a very sensitive issue."

He said that going by the commission's figure of 700 deaths and 3,000 women widowed and up to 20,000 children orphaned, "then this means each man in Aceh had more than three wives... and each of the widows had six children".

He appealed for wisdom in treating these findings to help preserve national unity and cohesion.

"These were findings that have no legal footing. These should be cross-checked with other findings so that we can arrive at truly tested and measured conclusions, backed with accurate data.

"If every single finding is announced to the public immediately, then where is the moral responsibility?" he asked.

Antara meanwhile reported yesterday that the chief of the Liliwangsa military command in Aceh appealed to Acehnese people in hiding or living in exile in Malaysia to come home.

Col. Dasiri Musnar told the news agency in the industrial town of Lhokseumawe that the government would grant them amnesty if they returned and helped rebuild the province.

"I guarantee their safety. Not a single hair of theirs will be touched if they return with honest and clean intentions," Col. Dasiri was quoted as saying.

He said the offer of amnesty had been extended since July 1997, but many people were not convinced of the sincerity of the offer.

"They should know that the task of building our villages falls on no one but ourselves," he said.

He said the offer was not mere lip service but came from the bottom of his heart.

"Rest assured that if they return to build their villages, they'll have nothing to worry about, especially now that the regional military operation status has been lifted from Aceh."

He also said that those who still had doubts about the offer could call him on 0645-43196 to ask for his personal guarantee before coming home.

In Medan, the rights commission's secretary-general, Baharudin Lopa, said yesterday the finding it had announced was "mere data" and have yet to be processed before submitted as recommendation to the government.

He promised that the commission would soon hold a plenary session and prepare the recommendation.

"Our notes have yet to be finalized," he said. (prb/emb/21)