INDONESIA: NEW YORK-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SAYS JAKARTA HAS "UTTERLY FAILED" TO CONTROL MILITARY AND POLICE OPERATING IN ACEH
Record ID:
584851
INDONESIA: NEW YORK-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SAYS JAKARTA HAS "UTTERLY FAILED" TO CONTROL MILITARY AND POLICE OPERATING IN ACEH
- Title: INDONESIA: NEW YORK-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH SAYS JAKARTA HAS "UTTERLY FAILED" TO CONTROL MILITARY AND POLICE OPERATING IN ACEH
- Date: 17th August 2001
- Summary: (W4)ACEH, INDONESIA (AUGUST 17, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. CU'S: SPECIAL FORCES POLICE CONVOY ON ROAD (2 SHOTS) 0.10 2. SV/TRACK: POLICE WITH RIFLES (2 SHOTS) 0.21 3. CLOSE UP OF POLICE WITH WEAPONS 0.25 4. VARIOUS OF POLICE PATROLLING; LOOKING FOR SEPARATIST REBELS (3 SHOTS) 0.51 5. SLV: POLICE SHOOTING 0.55 6. VARIOUS POLICE SHOOTING (2 SHOTS) 1.07 7. SV: POLICE PATROLLING, WALKING ALONG ROAD 1.16 (W4) JAKARTA, INDONESIA (AUGUST 19, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 8. SV/SCU/CU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH ASIA DIRECTOR, SIDNEY JONES, SAYING: "Everyone that I have spoken to, and that includes every district in Aceh, says yes, it is worse than any time in the past. I think one of the reasons it is worse is because people are getting it from both sides now. I think it is going to take people with a real understanding that this cannot be solved by military means alone and I don't think that understanding is there. I think people have to realise there are very deep seated political and economic grievances in Aceh that have to be addressed, and it is not clear they are going to be addressed by this new autonomy law." (4 SHOTS) 1.50 (W4) ACEH, INDONESIA (AUGUST 17, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 9. PAN DOWN: BURNED DOWN SCHOOL BUILDINGS 1.58 10. CLOSE UP OF PEOPLE SIFTING THROUGH SMOULDERING DEBRIS OF BURNED BUILDING 2.03 11. SV: PEOPLE STANDING NEXT TO BURNING AND SMOULDERING RUINS 2.08 12. WIDE OF BURNT OUT BUILDING AND PEOPLE STANDING IN BURNT RUINS 2.11 (W4) ACEH, INDONESIA (AUGUST 18, 2001) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 13. VARIOUS SEPARATIST REBELS PATROLLING (2 SHOTS) 2.30 14. CLOSE UP OF REBEL POINTING WEAPONS (3 SHOTS) 2.40 15. VARIOUS OF REBELS TRAINING (2 SHOTS) 2.50 16. SCU: (SOUNDBITE) (Bahasa Indonesia) FREE ACEH MOVEMENT (GAM) DEPUTY MILITARY COMMANDER, SOFYAN DAUD, SAYING: "Autonomy for Aceh was also promised by Megawati's father, Sukarno, but it never suited our purpose. The Acehenese were oppressed, our wealth and resources were robbed. So now, GAM has no relations with Megawati. What GAM wants, what the Acehnese want is total independence". 3.28 17. SCU: GAM REBELS WITH WEAPONS 3.36 18. CLOSE UP OF REBELS WITH WEAPONS (2 SHOTS) 3.49 19. WS: SILHOUETTE OF GAM REBELS PATROLLING AT DUSK 3.54 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 1st September 2001 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VARIOUS LOCATIONS, ACEH PROVINCE AND JAKARTA, INDONESIA
- Country: Indonesia
- Reuters ID: LVA5DS4UYWCWAIU7RH2BRI9DVQIX
- Story Text: More than 1,500 people, most of them civilians, have
been killed in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh since the
beginning of the year in a rebellion that presents new
President Megawati Sukarnoputri with one of her most
formidable challenges.
A leading international rights group on Sunday (August
19) accused both Indonesia's security forces and rebels in
Aceh of violating human rights with impunity in an
increasingly bloody conflict in the province.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said Jakarta had
"utterly failed" to control the military and police operating
in Aceh and called on new President Megawatt Sukarnoputri to
quickly set up human rights courts to prosecute serious
violations.
"Everyone that I have spoken to, and that includes every
district in Aceh, says yes, it is worse than any time in the
past. I think one of the reasons it is worse is because people
are getting it from both sides now. I think it is going to
take people with a real understanding that this cannot be
solved by military means alone," said Sidney Jones Asia
Diretor for Human Rights watch.
The report said Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels were
threatening journalists who did not report its version of
events in the resource-rich province of four million people.
Separatists in Aceh rejected the report on Monday (August
20), but admitted to kidnapping a TV crew for alleged
unbalanced reporting.
The Indonesian military has also rejected the accusations,
which came only days after Megawati apologised to Acehnese
residents for decades of brutal Indonesian rule.
Indonesia's security forces remain mostly holed up in
their heavily-defended compounds behind their own barricades
in the villages and towns, occasionally venturing out to
patrol the highway.
The 40,000 heavily-armed troops in Aceh cannot stop the
guerrillas taking control of the countryside after the sun
goes down.
The fighting has condemned most people in this devoutly
Muslim territory on the northern tip of Sumatra island to a
life of violence, intimidation, food shortages and suffering.
In many areas outside the provincial capital, Band Aceh,
few people dare work in the fields, shops are tightly
shuttered, buses run only sporadically, the roads are largely
empty and the electricity supply was lost long ago.
Many schools have been destroyed -- a favorite GAM target
because of their vulnerability and their symbolism of
Jakarta's rule -- and thousands of homes have been torched.
The crackle of gunfire is heard sporadically and the
rebels bomb military compounds and government facilities every
day and night.
The size of the band of rebels, some of whom serve
Indonesian troops or police in coffee shops or markets by day
and take up arms at night, is estimated to be as high as
10,000.
They are far from skilled. But they have the numbers and
the popular support to cause serious problems for the 40,000
Indonesian police and soldiers in the province of four
million.
On Sunday, the rebels said they could not work with new
nationalist President Megawati.
"Autonomy for Aceh was also promised by Megawati's father,
Sukarno, but it never suited our purpose. The Achenese were
oppressed, our wealth and resources were robbed. So now, GAM
has no relations with Megawati. What GAM wants, what the
Achenese want is total independence" GAM's Deputy Military
Commander Sofyan Daud, told Reuters.
Many Indonesians fear that, if Indonesia's western-most
province, rich in gas and other natural resources, breaks
away, it will create a domino affect in other disgruntled
regions that could tear apart the world's fourth most populous
nation.
The government has offered special autonomy to Aceh and
Indonesia's other separatist hotspot Irian Jaya in the far
east of the embattled country, to run much of their own
affairs in an attempt to placate demands for independence.
And the decades long rebellion presents Megawati with one
of her most formidable challenges.
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