20000122

Indonesia to open Aceh rights trial soon

JAKARTA: The Indonesian government will open the first trials of military personnel and civilians over human rights violations in the troubled province of Aceh later this month, a report said here on Friday.

Eighteen military personnel and two civilians will be tried by a joint military-civilian panel of six judges over the murder of 65 people in West Aceh in July, State Minister for Human Rights Affairs, Hasballah M. Saad said according to the Jakarta Post daily.

Saad gave no exact date or the names of the suspects, but he said that the trials will be held in the town of Sabang, on Weh island, off the northern most tip of Aceh.

Indonesian military police officers have said that a lieutenant colonel will be the most senior among those to be tried over the shooting of the 65 people at an Islamic boarding school in Beutong Ateuh, North Aceh, on July 23.

The military have said that Tengku Bantaqiah, a local Muslim leader who was among the victims, was linked to the Aceh Merdeka Movement (GAM) which has been fighting for a free and Islamic state since 1976.

They have also claimed that the 65 victims had been killed in an exchange of fire, while witnesses and the findings of a government probe on the affair, have said that soldiers had lined up the victims and executed them.

The Beutong Ateuh incident is one of five cases which the government probe has prepared for trial. AFP