|
|
|
|
TITLE: Nine Dead in Aceh, Rebels Accuse Government Troops of Rape |
AUTHOR: |
PUB: AFP |
DATE: May 12, 2001 |
|
At least nine civilians including a woman and an eight-year-old boy were killed and two others injured as government troops stepped up sweeps against separatists in the Indonesian province of Aceh, residents and rebels said. Aisyah Binti Teunku Budi, 28, and Chairul Asid, were shot dead by government troops during a sweep of Saramaba village in North Aceh Friday evening, rebel operations commander Amri Bin Abdul Wahab said. Wahab told AFP by telephone that the woman was arrested in a field and brought to a small prayer house in the village, then was raped by the soldiers before being shot dead. He said the boy was shot when he ran away from the soldiers.Wahab said that at least five other women, including a girl of 15, in Saramaba and the neighbouring village of Blangreuma were also raped by troops during the sweep of the area."Indonesian bandit soldiers also tortured some villagers in the two places," after they could not answer questions on the whereabouts of the local separatists, Wahab added. But police operations spokesman Comissioner Sudharsono (Eds: one name) said he had received no report yet of the incidents."But I am sure that it is impossible that Insdonesian security forces were involved in rape," he said. Sudharsono also denyied that civilians had been shot as claimed by the rebels. Red Cross workers Saturday removed the bodies of two young men from Payatengoh village, North Aceh. The two were shot dead by troops during a sweeping operation of the area on Friday night, according to residents. Meanwhile four farmers cutting rice in Geumeuroh, in Pidie district, were shot dead by troops during a sweep, also on Friday, a resident there said. In Banda Baru subsdict, also in Pidie, troops shot two farmers cutting rice on Friday afternoon, and both victims were listed in critical condition in hospital, hospital sources said.Sudharsono said that a joint army police patrol engaged in a two-hour running battle with separatists of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the adjoining villages of Bayarauh, and Cottunong, and Cotboroh, also in Pidie on Friday afternoon.There were no reports of victims on either side in the firefight, after which the rebel group, estimated to number some 50 men, fled for the mountains. When the patrol continued their sweep they uncovered two GAM bases in Cottunong, where they seized documents and home-made weapons, he said. The GAM has been fighting for an independent state of Aceh since the mid-1970's, and calls for a referendum on self-determination have been fuelled by a decade of harsh military operations against the rebels.Meetings between the government and GAM in Geneva last year resulted in a series of truces, but they failed to stop the violence and last month the goevrnment declared GAM outlawed and sent 1,100 fresh troops to the province to hunt down the rebels. END |