DATE=10/31/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ACEH MASSACRE (L-O)
NUMBER=2-255659
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
INTERNET=YES
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: A government fact-finding team says Indonesian
troops are guilty of massacring 50 unarmed civilians
last July in the northern Aceh province. As Patricia
Nunan reports from Jakarta, the investigators have
dismissed the military's defense the dead were members
of a rebel separatist movement.
TEXT: The fact-finding team made up of Indonesian
government officials, human rights activists, and
police says there is little evidence to support
military claims separatist rebels were active in the
area where the massacre took place. The team is
urging the new government of President Abdurrahman
Wahid to bring those soldiers involved in the massacre
to trial.
Witnesses say Indonesian soldiers rounded up a group
of people taking classes to study the Islamic faith in
the Acehnese village of Beteung Ateuh. Then,
witnesses say, the soldiers took the group of about 50
people to a nearby forest and executed them.
The Indonesian military has maintained the dead were
separatist rebels who were killed in a gun-battle with
troops.
But the government investigators have dismissed those
claims. Investigators say the villagers knew troops
were coming to the area four-hours before they
arrived. But during that time they made no efforts to
hide or arm themselves against the troops.
Indonesia's Aceh province has been the site of long-
simmering tensions between rebels of the Free Aceh
Movement and Indonesian troops for more than a decade.
Human rights officials say at least two-thousand
people have died or disappeared since the Indonesian
military launched a mission to crack down on the
separatists in 1989.
But analysts say the crackdown may actually be fueling
calls for Aceh's independence. Also, the government's
willingness to hold a referendum in the disputed
territory of East Timor -- which led to East Timor's
independence from Indonesia -- has also encouraged the
separatists.
Indonesia's new President Abdurrahman Wahid, a former
Muslim leader, has promised to work to end the
separatist rebellion in Aceh, a staunchly Muslim
province. But government officials say it is too soon
to consider whether the government will allow an
independence referendum in Aceh. (SIGNED)
NEB/MPN/RAE
31-Oct-1999 07:32 AM EDT (31-Oct-1999 1232 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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